Indian surgeon arrested on Italian mountain goes before US judge to face fraud charges

Indiana surgeon arrested in Italy faces US judge

HAMMOND, Ind. — An Indiana surgeon accused of fraud and malpractice who was arrested in December on an Italian mountainside after more than five years on the run appeared in a U.S. court Monday.

Dr. Mark Weinberger is charged with 22 counts of health care fraud, including allegations he billed insurance companies for more than $300,000 for unnecessary or never-performed procedures. He also faces about 300 civil lawsuits from former patients.

Weinberger, who has no attorney, told the judge he understood the charges against him. He said he had been unemployed for six years, had no place to live, no source of income and no money in any bank accounts.

“I’m not certain of the status of my assets,” he said.

Weinberger’s medical practices, Merrillville Center for Advanced Surgery LLC and Nose and Sinus Centers LLC, were liquidated after he disappeared during a 2004 vacation in Greece with his wife.

Weinberger, wearing an orange jump suit and sporting stubble, leafed through the indictment with his shackled hands. He paused before answering several of U.S. District Court Judge Paul Cherry’s questions during the initial court appearance.

Cherry said he would appoint a federal public defender for Weinberger and ordered the defendant to be held in the custody of U.S. Marshals until an arraignment and detention hearing on Thursday afternoon.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Nozick declined to comment after the brief hearing in Hammond.

Weinberger was indicted in 2006 as malpractice lawsuits against him piled up. The indictment accuses him of putting patients under general anesthesia to perform sinus surgeries that cost between $2,600 and $16,740, but were never performed.

He was arrested in December on a snowy mountain in northern Italy where officials said he had been living in a tent. It was unclear how long he had been living there.

Weinberger then spent time in an Italian hospital recovering from injuries he sustained after stabbing himself in the neck as he was taken into custody. He was recently returned to the U.S.