Richard Scrushy, former CEO of HealthSouth Corp., was ordered to pay $2.9 billion to investors for his involvement in an accounting fraud that almost toppled the company in 2005.

An Alabama state judge found Scrushy, who is serving a seven-year prison term for a bribery conviction, responsible for the fraud in a civil suit filed by investors, who argued that he played a key role in manipulating accounts at the hospital chain, according to a Reuters report.

Representatives of Scrushy, 56, said he intends to appeal the ruling, saying he was the victim of the actions of his subordinates and did not know of the hospital chain’s financial problems. That argument failed in his 2005 criminal trial, leading to his imprisonment.