UC Considers Halting Pay of 2 Doctors in Scandal

A committee of University of California regents this week will consider a proposal to stop paying the salaries of two doctors implicated in the UC Irvine fertility scandal, according to a confidential document.

Ricardo H. Asch and Jose P. Balmaceda, accused by the university of stealing eggs and embryos from patients and giving them to others, would lose annual salaries of $95,800 and $63,700 respectively, according to the staff proposal.

A third physician accused in the scandal, Sergio C. Stone, apparently would continue to draw his annual salary of $74,100.

All three doctors were placed on leave from the UCI faculty last May amid allegations of egg-swapping, financial wrongdoing and research misconduct. UCI has begun disciplinary proceedings.

In addition, the U.S. attorney’s office and other authorities have launched probes into possible tax fraud, smuggling of fertility drugs and mail fraud.

The trio have denied any intentional wrongdoing.

The university should not continue to pay Asch and Balmaceda because they have left the country and “apparently do not intend to return at any time soon, if at all,” according to the proposal.

Asch is living in Mexico and Balmaceda in Chile. Both have sold expensive homes in Orange County. Stone continues to live in Orange County.

University policy calls for paying faculty members pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings. But the staff report contends an exception to university policy is warranted because the doctors are not available to cooperate in the investigation of their conduct, nor are they available to resume their duties if the suspension of their privileges is lifted.

Balmaceda’s attorney, Patrick Moore, said Tuesday that he had not been informed of the possible move to stop his client’s pay.

Asch’s attorney, Lloyd Charton, could not be reached.

The salary proposal will be considered in closed session of the UC Board of Regents finance committee on Thursday. If approved, it will go to the full board for consideration on Friday.

The proposal comes less than a month after the university cut the salaries of all three doctors by 23%, citing financial concerns at the UCI College of Medicine.

It also follows a regents meeting in November at which officials expressed dismay that the university continued to compensate faculty members accused of such serious misconduct.

Regent Howard H. Leach suggested at that meeting that the university consider placing the doctors’ salaries in interest-bearing accounts for the future use of patients whom the doctors allegedly have victimized. The staff proposal does not address Leach’s idea.