Irvine's Scrambled Eggs Scandal is Back in the News

UC-Irvine's scrambled eggs scandal from the 1990s is back in the news:

Physician tied to UCI fertility-fraud scandal agrees to plea to tax fraud

Orange County Register, Sean Emery, 3-7-22

A physician tied to the 1995 UC Irvine fertility scandal involving the switching of frozen embryos of women without their knowledge has agreed to plead guilty to tax fraud in the case, according to newly filed court papers. Decades after fleeing to Chile in the midst of the scandal, Jose Balmaceda appeared last week in a courtroom at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana. Balmaceda signed a plea agreement on Aug. 11, and surrendered to law enforcement on Feb. 28, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As part of his plea agreement, Balmaceda admitted that he under-reported his taxes in 1991 and 1992, as part of a scheme in which he and other doctors at the UC Irvine fertility clinic took cash from some clients and didn’t report the income.

In 1995, the Orange County Register reported that Dr. Ricardo Asch, along with Balmaceda and Sergio Stone, had taken women’s eggs without their permission and given them to other women who later bore children from those eggs. At least 15 live births resulted from the improper transfers, and the clinic was shuttered following the egg-theft scandal. The Register won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story. While stealing human tissue was not a crime at the time, an audit determined that nearly $1 million in clinic income had not been reported. That was believed to include tens of thousands of dollars in cash payments from patients that were allegedly pocketed by doctors.

A federal grand jury indicted Asch, Balmaceda and Stone on multiple charges of mail fraud and income-tax evasion. Stone was convicted in 1997 and fined $50,000. But Asch and Balmaceda both fled the country. It isn’t clear from court records what Balmaceda has done in the decades since fleeing to Chile in the midst of the scandal. Balmaceda’s surrender was the result of negotiations between prosecutors and his attorney, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and he is currently out of custody on a $750,000 bond. Balmaceda’s change of plea hearing has been set for March 25, court records show...

While the criminal case related to the fertility scandal has stretched on for years, patients filed more than 150 lawsuits, resulting in the university paying out more than $27 million in settlements. 

Full story at https://www.ocregister.com/2022/03/07/physician-tied-to-uci-fertility-fraud-scandal-agrees-to-plea-to-tax-fraud/.