US couple accused of raising 21 children in 'house of horrors' through surrogacy scheme
A wealthy Chinese immigrant couple have been accused of amassing 21 children through a surrogacy scheme and raising them in a "house of horrors," with prosecutors alleging the children suffered daily beatings by nannies while the couple watched via surveillance cameras and laughed.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested at their mansion in Arcadia, about 20 kilometres northeast of downtown Los Angeles. They face several counts of child abuse as well as conspiracy to commit child abuse, accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness.
"This case is unprecedented. It is horrific," District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. "The physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable."
The couple pleaded not guilty in court and denied all allegations through a Mandarin interpreter. Prosecutors sought US$100 million bail per person, citing the serious nature of the charges and flight risk. They said the couple had over 200 personal and 70 corporate bank accounts with annual transfers of US$250 million, and held US, Mexican and Chinese passports. Investigators found a bank statement showing more than US$70 million in one account.
Judge Kerry White set bail at US$20 million each with home detention and a protective order against visiting their children.
Fifteen children were removed from the home last year after an abuse allegation, and another six living elsewhere were also located. They ranged in age from two months to 13 years, with most between one and three. Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children, while the rest were born via surrogates.
Hochman said the couple set up an agency, Mark Surrogacy, and used it to hire surrogates across the US, misleading women by telling some they could not conceive and others that they only had one child and wanted one more. He described the house as "a house of horrors."
Prosecutors said the couple set up three rooms called learning centres where children sat at desks under nannies' supervision. Through motion-activated cameras, the couple watched and at times laughed as nannies abused the children, including daily beatings. In one video, Xuan allegedly told a nanny to strike a child harder; in another he joined in hitting the child. Nannies were allegedly told not to leave physical marks, and children were told to deny being beaten when police investigated.
A nanny seen hurting the two-month-old infant fled to Mexico and then China. After the children were taken into state custody, Zhang was accused of writing in a book during a supervised visit: "Tell them you're happy with me, tell them you want to come home."
Defence lawyer Mitchell Krems said it was "patently false" that Xuan was involved in beating the children, blaming the nannies. He said Xuan "intervened swiftly" and fired the nanny, and that his goal was to raise children who become productive adults. Krems called the bail amount "absurd" and said Zhang has a rare form of leukaemia and is recovering from a bone marrow transplant. After the hearing, he said the couple immigrated from China to have as many children as they want, adding: "If they were white, if they were Elon Musk, and they weren't Chinese, they wouldn't experience this level of scrutiny."
At least eight women came forward to say they were aggressively pursued to serve as surrogates and given misleading information. Krems denied the couple lied to surrogates.
