At the age of 65, a Los Angeles community leader, Xuan Guojun, and his 38-year-old wife, Silvia Zhang, are currently under investigation by federal authorities and local police. This investigation was triggered after their infant suffered a head injury in May and the couple delayed seeking medical help for the child. During a routine inspection, local police discovered that the couple had a total of 21 children, many of whom were born through surrogate mothers, and most of them were infants or toddlers.
Some surrogate mothers involved in the case stated that once the contract was signed with Xuan and Zhang, the couple would ignore them, not even looking at the child after birth and simply paying them off before leaving. One surrogate mother who almost worked with the couple expressed feeling something was amiss when they constantly asked if she had friends willing to become surrogates.
According to the report by the Associated Press on Saturday (July 19), some surrogate mothers who had worked with Xuan and Zhang took to social media to detail suspicious behavior, including the couple failing to fulfill payment terms as agreed in the contract and being absent during childbirth. Many of the surrogate mothers contacted by the Associated Press did not respond or stated they would issue a statement only through their lawyers.
A woman using the pseudonym Esperanza shared her experience of almost being a surrogate for the couple. Despite Xuan and Zhang offering a high price of $60,000 for surrogacy, conflicting information provided by them made her hesitant, leading her to ultimately decide against signing the surrogacy contract.
Esperanza is one of at least eight known surrogate mothers involved in the case. Many of them were first-time surrogates, stating that the couple had misled them with incomplete or misleading information about their family situation and intentions.
The Arcadia Police Department near Los Angeles mentioned that the FBI is investigating whether Xuan and Zhang misled surrogate mothers located across the United States. The FBI has not confirmed the investigation yet.
Esperanza’s contact with Silvia Zhang began in 2023, when she posted in a Facebook group dedicated to surrogacy enthusiasts and received a private message from Zhang.
Zhang mentioned that they had encountered fertility issues and already had an 8-year-old daughter in China. Zhang expressed a desire for twins and was seeking a second surrogate mother.
However, things took a strange turn when Zhang asked if Esperanza knew of anyone else willing to be a surrogate.
“She said she was a real estate agent in Arcadia, so she was wealthy and could afford the fees for many surrogate mothers,” Esperanza said, matching with the publicly available occupational information about Zhang in the local media.
At a point during contract discussions, the couple’s lawyer abruptly hung up the phone, leading Esperanza to abandon the surrogacy plan. She noted that the contract specified the implantation of two embryos instead of one, and the section requiring background information on the couple was deleted.
When she informed them of her decision not to sign the contract, the couple became very upset.
Esperanza showed messages from Silvia Zhang offering an additional $3,000 if she agreed to continue with the surrogacy and a $2,000 bonus upon detecting the fetus’s heartbeat.
Another surrogate mother, Kayla Elliott, hoped to gain custody of the child she gave birth to for the couple in March through litigation. Residing in Texas, she chose surrogacy out of a genuine desire to provide a home for someone.
Elliott mentioned that she was questioned by the FBI at the end of May.
Based on the surrogacy contract provided by Elliott, she had signed with a company named “Mark Surrogacy.” California records indicated that a company called “Mark Surrogacy Investments LLC” registered at the address of Xuan and Zhang. However, neighbors were unfamiliar with the couple or the company named “Mark Surrogacy.”
The contract listed Xuan Guojun and Silvia Zhang as the intended parents. Elliott was to receive payments of $65,000 in installments before the 16th week of pregnancy.
During the early stages of pregnancy, Elliott flew to California to meet the couple, but only Silvia Zhang showed up, which raised her suspicion.
She remembered that throughout the process, she had minimal direct contact with Xuan and Zhang. This was uncommon in the surrogacy industry where communication usually directly involves the intended parents. Most of the time, she communicated through text and email with representatives from the agency, who discouraged her from contacting Zhang directly.
“The agency always said, ‘Oh, they are very busy,'” she expressed.
Upon learning that the couple had also engaged two other surrogate mothers to give birth for them, the agency told Elliott, “They only wanted a large family.”
The embryo implantation surgery for Elliott was conducted at the Western Fertility Institute in Los Angeles. The clinic declined to comment on the investigation.
During Elliott’s delivery, neither Xuan nor Zhang were present. Silvia Zhang only showed up a few hours after the birth of the child.
Elliott mentioned that Silvia Zhang “seemed to have very little connection with the child… she hardly even looked at the baby.”
Silvia Zhang handed Elliott $2,000 in cash on the spot and gave $200 to each of the three family members in the room before leaving with the newborn baby.
Currently, Elliott is seeking custody of the infant she carried as a surrogate and hopes that all children involved remain safe and well.
When the scandal involving the couple was first exposed by the media, Elliott attempted to reach out to Silvia Zhang through calls and text messages.
In one of the text messages, Silvia Zhang tried to comfort Elliott, stating, “All children are very important in our lives.”
According to Officer Kollin Cieadlo from the Arcadia Police Department, the 21 children found at Xuan and Zhang’s residence, the youngest being 2 months old and the oldest 13 years old. Most of the children were infants or toddlers aged between 1 and 3 years.
Authorities stated that most of the children had the same short haircut and were dressed similarly, resembling each other regardless of gender.
On May 7, the Arcadia Police Department received a report from a local hospital about a suspected child abuse case where a 2-month-old infant was rushed to the hospital due to a severe head injury resulting in intracranial bleeding.
Following this report, the police swiftly initiated an investigation and executed a search warrant at a residence on W Camino Real Ave in Arcadia. Upon searching the house and reviewing surveillance footage, the police found alarming scenes: on May 5, the infant lost consciousness due to violent shaking and beating by a babysitter named Li Chunmei. Although the legal guardians of the child, Xuan and Silvia were aware of the incident, they failed to seek medical help promptly. The child was only taken to the hospital two days later when seizures occurred.
Subsequently, Xuan Guojun and Silvia Zhang were arrested on suspicion of endangering the safety of a child and were each released on a $500,000 bond. The primary suspect, a 56-year-old babysitter Li Chunmei, is currently missing. The case remains under further investigation.