LOXLEY - It was one of the largest cases of accounting fraud in U.S. history, and now one of the men who helped orchestrate it is telling his story.

Aaron Beam helped found Healthsouth, which federal authorities raided in March of 2003.

They accused company executives of inflating earnings by 1.4 billion dollars.

Beam has now written a book about that scandal.

Greg Neumann spoke with him Monday, and joins us with more.

Aaron Beam actually quit Healthsouth in 1997 and retired to Baldwin County.

But he couldn't outrun his past, and says he now wants to make sure future business leaders don't make the same mistakes he did.

When we first introduced Aaron Beam to Channel Three News viewers five years ago, it was on a much lighter subject.

"It's really funny, we actually, I built the football field before we built our house."

A die-hard LSU football fan, he'd built a replica of Tiger Stadium in the backyard of his Fairhope home.

But that house is long gone, sold off to pay the federal government nearly $300 thousand dollars.

"The actual, just outright, asking us to commit fraud, happened in 1996."

Beam says that's when infamous former Healthsouth CEO Richard Scrushy asked him and other accountants to "fix" the books, and report earnings that weren't actually there.

"I left in '97. I only participated in the fraud for about a year, and the fraud wasn't discovered until '03. And it occurred all during that time, from 1996 to 2003."

Beam testified against Scrushy, and in turn only served three months in prison.

But he says he lost most of his fortune, and dignity.

"I could have been known as one of the people that started one of the most successful health care companies in the United States, and one of the most successful companies in the history of Alabama. But I won't be remembered for that, I'll be remembered as a felon."

Beam says he wrote the book about Healthsouth to save future business leaders from a similar fate.

"Try to make a little difference in what is really apparently wrong with our business community today, and that sometimes greed is the overriding factor and ethical business behavior is just thrown out the window."

Beam says if he makes any profit from the book, most of it will go to pay back Healthsouth stockholders who lost money.

"Healthsouth: The Wagon of Disaster" will be in bookstores beginning November 1.Healthsouth Co-Founder Writing Tell-All Book