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A Japanese gang boss and another suspected gangster who had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center gave a collective total of $200,000 to the UCLA Medical Center after receiving the transplants. That brought accusations of organs for cash and the UCLA Medical Center was defending itself Saturday against charges it accepted big cash donations from alleged gangsters who received liver transplants.

Gangster Transplant Controversy for UCLA Medical: $200K for Organs?

A report from the Los Angeles Times detailed that a powerful Japanese gang boss named Tadamasa Goto, 65, described by authorities as the leader of the violent Goto-gumi Gang, donated $100,000 to the medical center less than three months after undergoing transplant surgery there in July 2001. A plaque on an entryway to a surgery office in the hospital reads, "In grateful recognition of the Goto Research Fund established through the generosity of Mr. Tadamasa Goto."


According to a report from the Associated Press, Goto had been barred from entering the United States because of his criminal history. But with help from the FBI, he obtained a visa in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs.

UCLA officials told the Times the institution had "no reason to question" where the patients' donation money came from, saying the cash went into the medical center's surgery department discretionary fund. The school also flatly denied there was any connection between the donations and the Japanese men's surgeries at a time when 186 patients died in the Los Angeles area while waiting for liver transplants.