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'We’re just innocent bystanders’ — Utah eye clinic is not owned by members of a polygamous sect, but the building is, and it may be hurting business

Millcreek • The patient had been sedated, and that’s when the anesthesiologist decided to ask David Petersen something.

“He’s like, ‘Hey, your building is in the news,’” Petersen, an eye surgeon, recalled Thursday. “Are you a part of that whole thing?”

That “whole thing” is the fraud the owners of Washakie Renewable Energy have admitted to while pleading guilty in federal court. Prosecutors say the company wrongly obtained $511 million from a government biofuels program and laundered it through businesses and real estate, including the purchase of the medical building at 4400 S.