UCI Chancellor Gets Pledge of Support From UC Brass : Scandal: Wilkening’s actions in fertility clinic investigation defended after lieutenant governor’s criticism.

Top University of California officials Wednesday issued a statement of support for UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, whose administration was accused by Lt. Gov. Gray Davis this week of downplaying the campus’s fertility clinic scandal.

“Chancellor Wilkening enjoys our full support for her effective leadership in addressing the matters related to the Center for Reproductive Health,” UC President Jack W. Peltason and Board of Regents Chairman Clair W. Burgener said in a joint statement.

“We remain confident that through her thoughtful guidance the campus will resolve the problems arising from the operation of the clinic.”

The statement was released after Davis criticized university administrators in the wake of raids by law enforcement officials Tuesday at the offices, storage spaces and homes of three doctors from the now-closed fertility clinic. Led by the FBI, agents and officers from at least seven agencies searched the homes, offices and storage spaces of the physicians for evidence in criminal investigations.

The clinic doctors--Ricardo H. Asch, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio C. Stone--are accused by the university of misappropriating human eggs and embryos; engaging in financial misconduct and research misconduct; and insurance fraud. They are also being investigated by outside agencies for alleged mail fraud, smuggling unapproved fertility drugs and tax evasion. The trio deny any deliberate wrongdoing.

Davis said Tuesday that the scope of the raids, and the number of agencies involved, suggested “there’s a heck of a lot more going on than the [UC Board of] Regents have been told. The FBI seems more determined to get to the bottom of this than the UC administration.

“If anything, the UC administration both in Irvine and in Oakland downplayed this. They led us to believe everything was under control. . . . No one led us to believe there would be a federal investigation, much less FBI raids.”

In a letter to Peltason Wednesday, Wilkening explained that she had no way of knowing the searches were coming, because law enforcement agencies typically do not provide advance warning. She said administrators only learned that a search warrant had been served Stone’s university office after the search began.