Latest news with #KaylaElliot
New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
Surrogacy scandal deepens as 6 women now claim they carried babies for Cali couple caught with 21 tots
For Kayla Elliot, the first red flag should have been the Facebook message inviting her to register with a little-known surrogacy agency in southern California. The Texas mother-of-four had been scrolling through surrogacy chat groups and said she wanted to carry a baby for a childless couple because 'I really enjoy being pregnant.' She found it strange that Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC reached out to her directly, but because she had little experience with surrogacy agencies — which match women with couples who want to have children — she agreed to go forward. 9 Kayla Elliot said she noticed a number of 'red flags' during her experience with Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC. Gofundme She did notice it was a little strange that the organization said they had already chosen a Chinese couple to be the parents of the baby she would eventually sign up to carry. 'I didn't have enough knowledge,' said Elliot in a YouTube interview posted earlier this month by the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, a California nonprofit whose mission is to inform the public about ethical issues surrounding biomedicine and biotechnology. 'I didn't know [that as a surrogate], you're supposed to choose your family.' Unbeknownst to her, the family she was carrying the baby for was already a large one. A house in an upmarket Los Angeles city was raided by the FBI, leading authorities to rescue 21 small children, many of whom had allegedly been subject to abuse. Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, were initially arrested in May under suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect, after a two-month-old baby in their care was brought to a local hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Doctors realized the injuries had occurred around two days previously, sparking a police investigation. 9 Fifteen children, most of them born by surrogate, were found in a sprawling $4 million home that was set up like a hotel, with an attendant at the front desk. The home is in Arcadia, a wealthy enclave known as the Chinese Beverly Hills. AP After obtaining a search warrant, detectives seized security cameras from inside the home which allegedly showed the hospitalized children being hit and violently shaken by a nanny, Chunmei Li, on May 5, resulting in the baby losing consciousness. Other children in the couple's care were abused emotionally and physically by at least six nannies, according to NBC, citing law enforcement sources. Police rescued 15 children from the sprawling 10,000 square foot home in Arcadia, California, an affluent community known as the 'Chinese Beverly Hills'. 9 Kallie Fell, the executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, said that the recent rescue of children in Arcadia 'smells like trafficking.' 'We discovered numerous children ranging in ages from 2 months old to 13 years old,' Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said. 'Many of the children were birthed through surrogacy and then the male and female at the residence took legal guardianship of those kids.' One neighbor said the house was set up like a hotel, with multiple ensuite rooms and a front desk run by an attendant, per CBS. Another six children belonging to the couple had been moved out of the mansion but were located by authorities. Police told local outlets Zhang was able to show that she is the legal mother on all of their birth certificates. 9 Police arrested Guojun Xuan (left) and Silvia Zhang after a two month old in their care was taken to hospital suffering a traumatic brain injury. Police later discovered 21 children in a raid on two properties that were under their care. KTLA 'We believe one or two were born biologically to the mother. There are some surrogates who have come forward and said they were surrogates for the children,' said Cieadlo. Seventeen of the 21 are under three, according to local reports. They have all now in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services. The Chinese-born couple said they had wanted to have as many children as possible because of Xuan's advancing age. However, while in their care 'the discipline, both verbal and physical, was severe,' added Cieadlo, who said they immediately called the FBI in to help investigate. Two companies registered to the address of the $4 million property — Mark Surrogacy Investment and Future Spring Surrogacy — are no longer active, according to California business records. Kallie Fell, executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, said the situation bares the hallmarks of a trafficking scheme. 'Everyone's spidey senses should go up. The danger of the fertility industry is that it is unregulated. Anyone can open an agency. The problem is way bigger than this small story.' 9 Future Spring Surrogacy, which was shuttered in May and registered at the mansion where police rescued the children, used a testimonial on its web site from Kayla Elliot. 9 The website for Future Spring Surrogacy outlines the steps for women who want to rent their wombs. In China, where infertility rates are high, surrogacy and the sale of human eggs are illegal, which is why many moneyed Chinese couples come to the US to contract surrogates to carry their babies, paying as much as $100,000 to rent a womb, according to a report. Police are still looking for Li, the nanny, who remains a suspect, with an arrest warrant issued, while Xuan and Zhang have been released without charges being filed at this point. A text message credited to Xuan by local media claimed 'any accusations of wrongdoing are misguided and wrong.' Six women have come forward to say they had babies for the couple, according to KTLA news. One surrogate in the Los Angeles area said she gave birth in March, while another had babies in 2022 and 2024 for them. 9 'Perla', 31, said she was was a surrogate for Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, but the baby was, sadly, stillborn. KTLA A third woman in Florida, 'Perla', 31, said she went through a pregnancy for the couple but the baby was stillborn. 'I think what hurt me the most was that I feel like the baby was abandoned—and I was too,' she told KTLA. Shockingly, one surrogate in Pennsylvania and another in Virgina, who both asked to remain anonymous citing privacy issues, are both currently pregnant with children for the couple, according to the station. 9 Kayla Elliot in a picture when she as still pregnant with the baby she was carrying for Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan. TikTok/Kayla Elliot For Elliot, there were other red flags involved with the birth of her surrogate baby — a girl born in March in Texas. When she showed up for the embryo transfer in California — one of 15 US states where compensated surrogacy is legal — she was surprised to meet an elderly man who she was told was the father, who had provided his sperm along with eggs from a donor. She was told the mother had 'a stomach bug' and didn't want to infect Elliot. Fell said this is the same story repeated to other women who had acted as surrogates for Mark Surrogacy. Like Elliot, they never met the mother, Fell told The Post Thursday. Another red flag surfaced a few days after the birth of the baby girl when a young Chinese woman showed up to collect her. Elliot found it strange that the woman had no sense of joy and didn't even come equipped with a baby car seat for the child. 'Usually, you are overjoyed to meet your child, but there was nothing like that,' said Fell, adding Elliot's family then 'drove the woman to the airport with the baby, because she seemed totally lost.' 9 The $4m home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan in Arcadia, California. AP Fell also told how the woman handed $200 to Elliot's and each of her children, who were in the hospital room. Fell said it's not clear how much Elliot was paid to carry the child, but had told her that it was 'at the lower end' of the pay scale for the service, which ranges anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000, Fell said. As for Elliot, she was so distressed with the situation that she started a GoFundMe campaign to 'seek legal placement of the baby girl I delivered as a surrogate.' The child, along with the 20 other children rescued by police, has been placed in foster care. 'The little one deserves stability, love and a safe home,' she wrote. 'I am prepared and deeply committed to providing that for her, but the legal process to secure placement is complex and costly.' So far, the campaign has raised just over $7,000. Cieadlo says the FBI and his detectives are now working to 'see the origins of where these children were all born, contact those surrogate mothers, see what the backstory is on that,' adding the investigation will cover the rest of the country and possibly become international.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Appalling secrets of couple who 'bought' 21 surrogate children including 17 toddlers for nanny-filled mansion
BREAKING NEWS Appalling secrets of couple who 'bought' 21 surrogate children including 17 toddlers for nanny-filled mansion A couple who had 21 surrogate children including 17 toddlers in their mansion didn't tell surrogates about the huge army of youngsters they were building, it is claimed. Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, who were arrested and charged in May, also hired a fleet of abusive nannies to care for their mega-brood, it was alleged Wednesday. The age-gap pair, who lived in an enormous $4.1 million mansion in Arcadia, just north of Los Angeles, are said to have sought the help of a huge fleet of surrogates because Silvia wanted a huge family. Details of their astonishing family emerged this week after all 21 of the children were taken into custody by social services. And a haunting photo of one of the babies emerged online after the infant's surrogate mother Kayla Elliot, 27, launched a bid to get the baby back. Elliott says she was told the baby was going to a loving family who only had one child. But CBS Los Angeles said the huge brood of children kept secret by Xuan and Zhang were aged between two months-old and 13 years-old, with seventeen aged three or under. One of the surrogate mothers who gave up her child to the couple, Kayle Elliot, 27, said she was heartbroken to discover that her baby girl was not given to a loving family with only one child, as she had been told A California couple who acquired 21 surrogate-born children kept them in a hotel-style $4.1 million mansion where they were abused, police say Investigators believe the couple solicited babies from surrogate mothers from around the country, none of whom knew they were carrying embryos for the same couple at the same time. They were busted after security cameras in the home allegedly showed their nanny Chunmei Li, 56, 'physically and verbally' abusing the children, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest. Neighbors said the sprawling nine-bedroom mansion is set up like a hotel, with a 'hotel desk and a gentleman sitting behind it like a clerk', local Art Romero told CBS News. Despite Zhang's alleged claim that she just wanted a large family, one expert fears the mega-family may have been connected to trafficking. Guojun Xuan, 65, (pictured) and his partner Silvia Zhang, 38, were arrested for felony child endangerment this week after cops found they had 21 children from surrogate mothers Zhang (pictured) and Xuan allegedly had 15 children in their home aged between two months and 13-years-old, and six other children had also been moved to other homes In a GoFundMe set up by Kayla Elliot as she tries to regain custody of her baby girl, she wrote that her child 'deserves stability, love, and a safe home.' All of the children were taken into the custody of Department of Children and Family Services, with Elliot saying she wants to take her home to Texas to be 'in a nurturing environment rather than staying in foster care.' Elliot told ABC7 that she believed the couple were clients of a surrogate agency, however cops now believe they were allegedly running the agency themselves. 'It's horrific, it's disturbing, it's damaging emotionally,' she said. Elliot said the couple told her they only had one other child, and is now hoping to get custody of the child she bore for them. 'These agencies, we're supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency - that was not disclosed at all beforehand,' she added. Elliot said she is now hoping to regain custody of the child she bore for the couple, and described the allegations as 'horrific, disturbing, (and) damaging emotionally' Neighbors said the couple's lavish mansion was set up 'like a hotel', with a lobby and nine bedrooms Xuan and Zhang were released following their arrest in May, but Arcadia police say they are still searching for Li, the nanny, who allegedly abused the children in the home. Detectives told CBS News that other nannies employed by the couple were also seen abusing the children in home security cameras. Although having dozens of children through surrogates is not illegal, officials said they are investigating the startling find inside the home. The sheer number of children involved and the fact many are so close in age to one another has raised alarm bells. Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center of Bioethics and Culture, told ABC7 that while the couple may not have broken the law by having so many surrogate children, the situation made her fear they were part of a human trafficking ring. Fell, who is working with Elliot, said that the surrogacy industry is unregulated, and oftentimes, 'anything goes.' 'And these clinics, these agencies are not regulated by any governing body,' she said. 'That to me smells of trafficking... What are the intentions of having that many children at home through these assisted reproductive technologies?' Officials issued an arrest warrant for their nanny Chunmei Li, 56, (pictured), who allegedly abused the children 'verbally and physically' It is unclear what the couple do for work or how they acquired their considerable wealth, with public records showing they are connected to a number of investment firms. Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said that the couple 'took legal guardianship of those kids' after they were born through surrogates, before Li allegedly abused the children as their nanny. 'The discipline, both verbally and physical, was severe to the point where it supported the beliefs that child abuse was occurring inside the home Cieadlo said. The Arcadia police said the FBI has joined its investigation into a suspected mass-surrogacy operation owned and ran by Xuan and Zhang.
