By 1995, Aaron Beam was the chief financial officer of HealthSouth, which was one of the most lucrative healthcare providers in the country.

However, within a decade, Beam would retire from HealthSouth, serve three months in jail and be blackballed from any reputable position as a financial advisor.

Beam gave an exclusive talk to a group of accounting students Monday night at Alston Hall. Many of the topics Beam discussed are included in his book, “HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster,” which recently made The New York Times’ Best Seller List.

Beam began the afternoon by unveiling his true allegiance.

“I’m an LSU guy, but I was pulling for you guys in the championship,” Beam said.

Much of Beam’s discussion revolved around his relationship Richard Scrushy, the company’s former CEO who is now serving a three-year prison sentence for fraud and false corporate reporting.

“If he and Hannibal Lector got in a fight, my money would be on Scrushy,” Beam said.

Beam said he originally became involved with Scrushy after he saw a job opening in the Houston Chronicle for Lifemark Corporation, a Texas-based health care system that Scrushy was running at the time.

Beam said that after the first day working for Scrushy, he gained a somewhat peculiar impression of him that would serve as an omen for Scrushy in the coming years.

“I went home and told my wife, ‘Today, I may have met the most brilliant businessman I’m ever going to meet, or possibly, the biggest con artist I’m ever going to meet,’” Beam said.

However, Beam maintained that Scrushy, regardless of his current legal troubles, was the best at what he did.

“It was really impressive to watch the guy work,” Beam said.

By 1984, Scrushy and Beam founded HealthSouth and moved to Birmingham to open its first outpatient center.

By 1986, HealthSouth was making the transition to being a public company. By the next decade, HealthSouth was a Fortune 500 franchise with locations in 50 states. By 1995, Scrushy was personally worth over $6 million.

However, Beam said the dark cloud for what was to come for the company was near. By 1996, HealthSouth had missed its earnings by a significant amount. After trying to tell Scrushy that the company needed to tell the public that it was in trouble, Scrushy refused, saying that allowing that would result in lawsuits and that “they wouldn’t be the darlings of Wall Street anymore.”

It was at this point that Beam experienced “a terrible moment in his life” as he and Scrushy begun “burning the books,” reporting earnings where there were none.

Hoping that things would turn around, Beam said that he finally realized things weren’t going to change.

“By 1997, we were doing the same things, and I had to make a decision,” Beam said.

As a result, Beam retired from the company despite objections from Scrushy, who wanted him to stay. Beam then moved to south Alabama, where he said he kept quiet and stayed in away from HealthSouth.

In addition, Beam discussed the meaning behind his book’s title, detailing how, early on, Scrushy had drawn a crude picture of a couple of people pulling a wagon, while others were located in or around it. Beam said that what Scrushy was trying to point out that he needed the company to work together, with everyone pulling the wagon together.

However, by 2003, the government had become aware of HealthSouth’s indiscretions, starting a case that would lead to Scrushy’s conviction and ultimately bankrupt the company.

Due to his minimal involvement with the scandal, Beam said he was lucky in that he himself only served three months in a minimum-security prison.

Beam said that he is unable to attain a job because of his felon conviction and that he now mows lawns near his home to make extra money. Closing out his discussion, Beams said he would be known as one thing for the rest of his life: a felon.

“That’s all I’m going to be,” Beam said. “Don’t let yourself be in that situation.”

Christopher Chester, a senior majoring in accounting, said that Beam had talked to his class last month and that despite being familiar with his material, he enjoyed the evening.

“We can all learn from what he’s said, regardless of what major you’re in,” Chester said.

Chester admitted that while the scandal was taking place, he was not familiar with the fine details of the case, but through his own studies, he has come to learn a great deal about Beam’s downfall.

“Don’t let your job control you,” Chester said.