Ricardo H. Asch, former director of the fertility clinic that plunged UC Irvine into an international scandal, was indicted Thursday on federal charges that he engaged in a fraudulent insurance billing scheme.
The 35-count mail fraud indictment by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles is the first against the scandal's central figure, accused by the university and scores of patients of stealing eggs and embryos and implanting them in other women. But, as with previous indictments against his two partners, Drs. Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio C. Stone, the charges do not touch on the issue of egg stealing.
Rather, the new indictment incorporates fraud charges against all three doctors, accusing them of stealing from insurance companies between 1991 and 1993 by falsely claiming that they were assisted by other licensed physicians when performing fertility procedures. In fact, they either were not assisted or were aided by nonlicensed physicians, such as medical residents or foreigners, whose services could not legitimately be billed, according to the indictment.
The doctors deny knowingly committing any wrongdoing.
Asch's criminal defense attorney, Ronald G. Brower, said Thursday that the narrow scope of the charges is tantamount to vindication.
"Isn't it amazing that . . . multiple federal agencies spent a year investigating and all they can find is some alleged insurance fraud?" Brower said. "It certainly is not what they thought they had when they began. As we've said all along, in the area of embryos and eggs and fertility fraud, these doctors committed no crimes. The limited indictment is proof of that."
Asch left the country more than a year ago, about the time investigators raided his Newport Beach home and Santa Ana office. He is living and practicing in Mexico City.
But Brower said his client is "very seriously considering" coming back to the United States to face the charges. "It's become apparent that there was no criminal misconduct. . . . The fraudulent insurance charges are not true," Brower said. "That being the case, he's considering coming back."
Asch originally was accused by UC Irvine not only of egg stealing, but of research misconduct, illegal importation of fertility drugs and insurance fraud. Authorities also were investigating possible tax evasion. He, his partners and the University of California have been sued by more than 80 former patients, alleging everything from egg theft to fraud.
