UCI FERTILITY SCANDAL : Doctors Didn’t Report Cash Payments, Ex-Clerk Alleges : Inquiry: Employee, on stress leave, contends they asked her to record the funds as ‘adjustments,’ not as income.

A former clerk at UC Irvine’s Center for Reproductive Health contends she has copies of bookkeeping records that show the clinic’s world-renowned physicians failed to report cash payments as income, the clerk’s attorney said Friday.

During a three-month stint as the clinic’s principal clerk, Linda Martin, 49, alleges that Drs. Ricardo H. Asch and Sergio Stone instructed her to record monetary payments as “adjustments,” not income, according to a letter Martin sent this week to UCI Medical Center.

Martin, who is seeking whistle-blower status, alleges that from December, 1993, to February, 1994, she routinely handed over daily cash payments ranging from $1,000 to $30,000 to the doctors, according to her June 15 letter.

“I believe this cash was taken for personal use by these doctors and not reported to the university or the government,” Martin wrote.

University officials declined to comment on Martin’s accusations.

“The university policy is not to comment on pending litigation,” UCI spokeswoman Fran Tardiff said. “We’re going to have to wait and see what happens.”

Attorneys for Asch and Stone were unavailable for comment Friday. But the two and their partner, Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda, have steadfastly denied allegations of skimming money, stealing human eggs and conducting improper research,

Martin’s letter served to notify the university she soon will file a formal whistle-blower complaint. Her official complaint is expected to be filed next week, said Orange attorney Melanie Blum, who also represents two women who allege the clinic’s doctors used their eggs for animal research without their consent.

Martin, who worked for the university in various jobs for 18 years, would become the fourth whistle-blower in the fertility clinic scandal. Three previous whistle-blowers, who received $919,370 in settlement payments from the university, triggered investigations into allegations of impropriety at the clinic. The allegations have resulted in seven inquiries, including criminal probes by UCI police and the Orange County district attorney.

Blum said the fertility clinic offered discounts for patients who paid in cash, so the clinic staff frequently dealt with large sums of money. The clinic would cut $3,000 from the normal $10,000 cost of fertility treatments to cash patients, she said.

In her letter, Martin said she was directed to place cash payments into a locked drawer and then give the money to the doctors at day’s end.

“As an employee I felt these practices were wrong and it was wrong to put me in a position to have to participate,” Martin wrote.

Soon after complaining to superiors about the alleged money skimming, Martin contends university officials shifted her from job to job and labeled her a “problem employee.” Martin left the university on stress leave May 19.

Her attorney said that Martin has been undergoing counseling and treatment for an irregular heartbeat.

“All this has affected her horribly,” Blum said. “The atmosphere at the university became intolerable for her.”