Mark Weinberger was on the run for more than five years.
He appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Cherry on 22 counts of health care fraud.
Weinberger, who once operated a sinus clinic in Merrillville, Ind., is accused of lying to patients about surgeries and putting some of them under anesthesia and then not performing the promised surgeries.
He disappeared in 2004 while on a trip to Greece. More than 350 civil lawsuits have been filed against him.
Weinberger was arrested in December at a mountain camp site in northern Italy where he was living in a tent.
