Unnecessary surgeries performed by untrained assistants are among the allegations in an indictment detailing a $150 million insurance scheme, among California’s biggest ever. All 21 patients sustained lasting scars and many required additional surgeries and suffered physical and psychological trauma as a result of their experience.
“Although the patient victims sustained physical harm, we who pay higher premiums for health care suffer economic harm when scams are allowed to continue unchecked”, said District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a written statement announcing the indictments.
Uwaydah was arrested last week in Germany and is awaiting extradition to the United States, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. She is being held on $18.5 million bail.
In one indictment, Uwaydah, Park and nine others are charged with a single conspiracy count, 32 counts of insurance fraud, three counts of illegal client referrals and 18 counts of aggravated mayhem, which involve disabling or disfiguring someone.
In court motions filed prior to the murder trial, Park’s attorneys denied “that she or any of her business associates were involved in any fraud at all”. More than 100 witnesses testified during two separate grand jury proceedings, one in February and the second in August.
Almost two dozen patients were told Uwaydah would perform surgery on them, only to have his physician’s assistant – who had not attended medical school – operate once they were under anesthesia, according to the indictment. The 57-count indictment alleges all the surgeries were billed to insurance companies as if Uwaydah had performed the surgeries.
The criminal enterprise paid attorneys and marketers up to $10,000 a month each for illegal patient referrals.
Uwaydah’s office manager and another defendant have been charged with falsifying documents related to a case that the California Medical Board brought against Uwaydah in 2009, which eventually resulted in the cancellation of his license in 2013. His personal attorney also is charged with one count of aggravated mayhem for her role in the alleged fraudulent surgery of a patient.
The two indictments list 132 felonies and name Uwaydah and 14 others as defendants, including his PA and billing manager.
Defendants include Paul Turley, 52, a chiropractor and Uwaydah’s business partner; Maria Turley, 48, Uwaydah’s director of surgery and Paul Turley’s wife; Marisa Schermbeck-Nelson, 37, Uwaydah’s personal assistant; Peter Nelson, 44, Uwaydah’s physician assistant and Schermbeck-Nelson’s husband; and Tatiana Torres, 45, Uwaydah’s personal attorney. Workers’ compensation patients were among those illegally referred to Dr. Uwaydah and his related businesses.