California Doctor Indicted in $150M Insurance Fraud Not in Custody, D.A. Says

Los Angeles prosecutors say the doctor who orchestrated a $150 million insurance fraud scheme and allowed his assistant to perform surgeries is not in custody in Germany as they had previously reported.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney on Tuesday offered no explanation for the discrepancy and wouldn’t say if authorities knew where Dr. Munir Uwaydah was.

A lawyer who previously represented the doctor had disputed that he was in custody, though he wouldn’t reveal how he knew that.

Prosecutors say Uwaydah was the ringleader of a conspiracy that defrauded insurance companies by billing for unnecessary services and medicine, and allowed his physician’s assistant to perform surgeries that left patients scarred for life.

Prosecutors say Uwaydah’s scheme was originally investigated as a possible motive in the killing of a former girlfriend, though the doctor wasn’t charged in that case.