Doctor Freed on Bail May Have Vanished

The UC Irvine fertility doctor who was arrested last month in Argentina after eluding authorities for five years did not appear for a court hearing Friday after his release on $10,000 bail, raising concerns among federal prosecutors that he has fled once again.

U.S. Justice Department officials said the whereabouts of Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda, one of three doctors suspected in a notorious fertility clinic scandal at UC Irvine, are unknown. They have asked Argentine authorities to search for him.

U.S. officials expressed disappointment with the Argentine judge’s decision to release Balmaceda over the objections of local federal prosecutors.

“We went to great lengths and the Argentines worked very hard to get him,” said John Russell, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman. “And the judge wouldn’t buy it.”

Balmaceda, 53, faces mail fraud and tax evasion charges in the United States in connection with UC Irvine’s fertility clinic scandal, in which allegations surfaced that doctors took human eggs and embryos from women and implanted them in other women without the donors’ consent.

Balmaceda had evaded authorities for five years by practicing in his native Chile, where U.S. officials could not extradite him. Last month during a trip to neighboring Argentina, Balmaceda was arrested at an airport after being spotted by Argentine customs officials.

At his bail hearing, Balmaceda was ordered not to travel and to report for an extradition hearing on Friday. When Balmaceda didn’t show, local prosecutors immediately asked the judge to issue an order for his detention and for federal police to launch a search.

Paul Raymond, Balmaceda’s Newport Beach-based attorney, said that he had spoken with his client several times in the last two weeks, and that Balmaceda had been staying at a house in Buenos Aires. He said Balmaceda was not a flight risk and that he was not guilty of the alleged crimes.

U.S. federal prosecutors, however, are concerned that Balmaceda may flee back to Chile.

“We have asked the Argentine authorities to act urgently to rearrest and detain this notorious fugitive,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

“Until Balmaceda is found, the Department of Justice intends to use all means available to locate him and to secure his lawful extradition to the United States to stand trial on the charges against him.”

News of Balmaceda’s disappearance did not surprise Melanie Blum, an attorney who represented families in litigation against the fertility clinic. The low bail amount, she said, suggested that Argentine authorities were unwilling to extradite him.

“It tells you that they had no intention of ever having him return to the U.S.” she said.

Balmaceda and a fellow physician, Dr. Ricardo H. Asch, were indicted in 1996 by a federal grand jury stemming from their work at fertility clinics in Orange and San Diego counties from 1986 to 1995.

A third physician who ran the clinic, Dr. Sergio C. Stone, was convicted in 1997 of fraudulently billing insurance companies. He was fined $50,000 and ordered to serve a year of home detention.