California woman pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar comp fraud scheme

A Redondo Beach, California, woman accused of participating in a $150 million workers compensation insurance fraud scheme pleaded guilty Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Forty-year-old Marissa Nelson faced one felony count of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and admitted a special allegation of taking property of a value exceeding $3.2 million, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Ms. Nelson is one of a dozen people accused of fraudulently billing tens of millions of dollars to insurance companies for fraudulent surgeries, prescription medications, fake MRI results, and falsifying medical reports and office visits, the prosecutor said.

She was a personal assistant to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Munir Uwaydah, also charged, and the wife of co-defendant Peter Nelson, a physician’s assistant who never attended medical school and allegedly performed invasive and sometimes unnecessary surgeries, the district attorney’s office reported.

The case is still under investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation and the Organized Crime Division.

Ms. Nelson’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Thursday.