Uwayday

The top local television news story Tuesday night was about Kelly Soo Park, who was acquitted in the murder of Juliana Redding in 2013. She was back in court facing new charges.

Redding was killed in 2008. Uwayday was romantically connected to Redding, and she was the daughter of a pharmacist whose business relationship with Uwayday had soured.

Park was named in an indictment, along with 14 other people, of falsifying documents in an attempt to protect Dr. Munir Uwaydah, who owned the now defunct Frontline Medical Associates in San Fernando, CA.

Park's bail was set at $18.5 million.

Uwayday          

The real story though, that local news didn't report fully, is about Uwayday.

Uwayday had been on the lam for years. He fled the country in May or June of 2010, when Park was arrested and accused of killing Redding at his request.

Uwayday was allegedly arrested in Germany and is facing extradition on various charges of wrongdoing in workers' compensation cases.

According to one of two grand jury indictments, handed down Feb. 25 and unsealed Tuesday, business entities associated with Uwaydah and Frontline Medical co-owner Paul Turley billed insurance companies more than $150 million between February 2011 and February 2015.

The entities, which include Firstline Health, Golden State Pharmaceuticals, South Bay Surgical and Spine Institute, U.S. Health and Orthopedics, Controlled Health Management and Ventura County Collections, also have liens for the same period seeking more than $150 million.

Turley was arrested on Sunday. His bail was set at $21.5 million.

Prosecutors say Uwaydah and Frontline Medical paid attorneys and marketers up to $10,000 a month for illegal patient referrals, an arrangement known as "capping." There were bonuses for patients who were surgical candidates.

In addition, Uwayday is accused of deceiving two dozen patients into believing he was doing surgery on them when in fact a physician's assistant who never attended medical school, actually performed the procedures.

That assistant, Peter Nelson, was booked into a Los Angeles county detention facility Monday with bail set at $21.5 million.

Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, told WorkCompCentral she can't comment on whether Uwaydah is still a person of interest in Redding's murder or any other aspect of the case.

There are a number of other people named but not accused in the indictments who are still active in the Southern California workers' compensation scene.

The indictment naming Uwaydah as a defendant is here.

The indictment for his alleged accomplices is here.