VAL WALTON
News staff writer

The federal government's investigation into massive accounting fraud at HealthSouth Corp. has expanded to include obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, money laundering and public corruption, according to court papers filed in Birmingham's federal court.

Prosecutors, in documents filed July 9 that U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson declined to seal and obatined [sic] Wednesday, said the government has uncovered evidence indicating multiple crimes by multiple suspects spanning several years and dating until at least to 1996. The documents do not identify specifics, but said the suspects include dozens of individuals and corporations.

Prosecutors said that the investigation of massive accounting fraud, which began in March, has developed and expanded.

"The activity being investigated occurred, in some instances, over many years and involved multiple transactions," the filings said. "Some of the crimes are only now coming to light, weeks after the initial allegations of accounting fraud. The accounting fraud itself involved numerous schemes both to `cook the books' and to conceal the fraud from outside accountants." [...]