A wealthy California couple accused of conspiring to abuse children born through surrogacy is facing scrutiny over its growing family, a surrogacy agency allegedly operated from its home, and questions about oversight in the reproductive industry.
Authorities arrested Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, in October and charged them with conspiracy to commit child abuse after investigating injuries a two-month-old boy named Walter suffered in May 2025. The couple denies the charges and remains in custody, with bond set at $20 million each.
Prosecutors allege the couple’s Arcadia mansion housed young children who endured repeated beatings. At an October news conference, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the residence as a “house of horrors for these incredibly young children who had been brought to this house through this surrogacy process.”
The investigation began after Walter arrived at a hospital with a head injury. A woman who identified herself as his mother told police the infant had fallen from a bed, but a doctor questioned that explanation, saying the injuries appeared more consistent with those caused by a car accident or shaking.
Police searched the mansion and found surveillance cameras throughout the property and multiple young children. Prosecutors initially described 14 children, ranging from six months to three years old, as living in the home. A criminal complaint said the couple installed 32 cameras around the residence.
Footage reportedly showed children sitting at desks for extended periods. Investigators also reviewed footage showing nannies carrying children into a room without cameras before hearing the children scream.
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Authorities allege that nanny Chunmei Li inflicted Walter’s injuries and charged her with child abuse under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death. Police have not arrested Li, who remains at large.
The couple’s attorney, Mitchell Krems, disputed the allegations, calling them a “mischaracterisation” of the evidence he had reviewed, CBS News reported. Krems defended Xuan, saying authorities were punishing his client for wanting a large family.
“He is being targeted for exercising his constitutional right to have a large family,” Krems said, according to CBS News.
If convicted, Xuan faces up to 17 years and four months in prison, while Zhang could receive up to 11 years and eight months.
The case has also drawn attention to the couple’s use of surrogacy agencies, including one allegedly operated from the same mansion where the children lived.
Investigators linked several women who served as surrogates for Xuan and Zhang to Mark Surrogacy. Corporate records listed Zhang as the agency’s manager and identified the Arcadia residence as its business address. Two lawsuits filed by surrogates allege the couple did not always disclose their connection to the agency.
Tronderrica James sued Xuan and Zhang in 2025, alleging fraud and intentional misrepresentation. Her complaint said Zhang failed to reveal her relationship with Mark Surrogacy early in the arrangement. James alleged she would not have continued had she known about the connection. The case remains pending after the couple sought its dismissal.
Five additional women — Stacy Raelyn King, Evelyn Senolos Areja, Kayla Elliott, Hallie Hernandez, and Vanity McGoveran — filed a separate lawsuit in August alleging similar conduct. Their complaint accused Zhang of failing to disclose the couple’s ties to the agency and the number of children they had.
“Each Plaintiff was led to believe she was the only woman carrying for the couple, and that she was helping a family conceive a single, cherished child,” the complaint alleged.
The couple also worked with Babytree Surrogacy, a California-based agency whose founder, Patrick Yu, told the BBC that Xuan approached him in 2018 seeking help building a large family. The agency helped match Xuan with several women who delivered at least four babies.
Yu said the agency ended its relationship with Xuan after learning about the investigation.
“When we saw the news reports that he was under investigation, that was when I first realised he had so many children. We immediately stopped working with him,” Yu told the BBC.
One woman matched with Xuan through Babytree in 2024 was already pregnant when reports about Walter’s injuries emerged in May 2025. Yu said he arranged a meeting between the couple and the surrogate, who ultimately continued the pregnancy and gave birth in early 2026.
The investigation has raised questions about the limited rules governing intended parents who pursue multiple surrogacy arrangements.
Dr. Liang Yu, vice chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Chinese Special Interest Group and program director of reproductive clinical science at Old Dominion University, told the BBC that no law limits the number of surrogacies an intended parent can pursue. The law also does not require intended parents to disclose their other arrangements, she said.
Individual agencies may impose their own restrictions, but intended parents can work with multiple agencies simultaneously without necessarily sharing the full scope of their arrangements.
“This creates a gray area in the law and in industry regulations,” Liang said.
She added that wealthy clients from other backgrounds also make similar arrangements, but privacy protections and confidentiality agreements often keep those cases out of public view.
“In other words, this kind of behavior (like Xuan) is not unprecedented,” she said.
The United States has become a major destination for international surrogacy clients. A 2024 study of U.S. surrogacy data found that nearly one-third of intended parents between 2014 and 2020 came from outside the country. China accounted for approximately 42 percent of those international clients, according to the report.
China bans surrogacy, prompting some prospective parents to seek reproductive services abroad to bypass restrictions on fertility treatments and barriers facing single people and LGBTQ individuals.
The scope of the investigation has expanded since police first searched the Arcadia property. According to court records cited by the BBC, Zhang maintained a spreadsheet listing 21 children as of May 2025.
The state removed those children from the home. Five more were born afterward, bringing the number connected to the family to 26, prosecutors said at an October hearing.
Deputy District Attorney MacKenzie Cameron Teymouri told the court that the couple’s combined net worth substantially exceeded $100 million in 2025. Teymouri also said investigators found three passports belonging to Xuan: Mexican, Chinese, and U.S. documents.
Xuan previously held public-facing roles in China and later became involved in Chinese American organizations in the United States. He also donated $4,900 through a company bearing his name during former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang’s 2022 election campaign. Wang resigned in May after federal prosecutors charged her with acting as an illegal agent of China. She later pleaded guilty to the felony charge.
A separate legal dispute involves a baby girl born to Melissa Epps, a surrogate who decided to keep the child after learning about the investigation while pregnant. Xuan and Zhang sued Epps, alleging she breached their surrogacy contract and demanded the baby’s return as well as $1 million in damages.
Epps initially represented herself before an attorney with the Virginia Legal Aid Society took her case. The child remains in social services custody but lives with Epps.
In a statement to the BBC, Epps’ attorney, Pamela DeCamp, said they were “very thankful for the efforts of the Los Angeles, California, District Attorney to obtain justice for the young children.”
“She remains safe and happy in Virginia. And we are confident she will continue to do so,” DeCamp said.