California pair charged with abusing at the least 14 surrogate-born youngsters

A California pair has been charged with a number of counts of abusing at the least 14 surrogate-born youngsters – some as younger as two months previous – and dissuading a witness.

“The variety of youngsters who had been subjected to this alleged horrific abuse is unprecedented,” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan J Hochman stated in a press release.

Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, who US media describe as a pair, had been arrested at their Arcadia mansion on Tuesday.

The pair pleaded not responsible at a Pasadena courthouse, the BBC’s US accomplice CBS News reported.

Xuan, 66, and Zhang, 39, are accused of conspiring to topic 15 of the 16 youngsters dwelling of their house to repeated bodily abuse, after 21 youngsters had been faraway from their custody final yr.

The pair ran their very own surrogacy firm and are accused of constructing false statements to at the least two ladies who grew to become surrogates, indicating that Zhang was struggling to conceive, in response to the felony grievance.

As of May 2025, Zhang maintained a spreadsheet that tracked 21 youngsters, together with these born to surrogates.

Officials stated the investigation started that month when Zhang introduced a two-month-old boy to the hospital with a head harm, telling medical employees that the child had fallen from a mattress.

The couple’s lawyer Mitchell Krems stated the allegation was a “mischaracterisation” based mostly on the proof he has reviewed, CBS News in Los Angeles reported.

Hospital employees knowledgeable legislation enforcement, and when police arrived at their house they found three totally different rooms referred to as “studying centres” beneath the supervision of a number of nannies, which Hochman described as a “home of horrors”.

The mansion allegedly had 32 motion-activated cameras which Hochman stated had been utilized by the couple to observe the self-discipline given by the nannies.

Footage allegedly reveals the nannies spanking, slapping or hitting the kids.

One nanny, Chunmei Li, is accused of hitting the two-month-old child who suffered the pinnacle harm two days earlier than he was delivered to the hospital.

Krems stated Li was rapidly fired, CBS News LA reported.

Li, 58, was beforehand charged with one felony rely of kid abuse beneath circumstances prone to trigger nice bodily harm or loss of life. Hochman stated she was on the run with a $105,000 (£88,800) warrant for her arrest.

In July 2025, the couple’s house was first raided by authorities, who took 21 youngsters into state custody.

Arcadia Police Department stated on the time the couple’s home was first raided that the kids ranged in age from two months to 13 years previous, however most had been between one and three years previous.

Fifteen of the kids had been taken from the couple’s house whereas six others had been dwelling elsewhere and in addition later taken into custody.

Krems stated his shopper Xuan was harmless.

“He is being focused for exercising his constitutional proper to have a big household,” CBS News quoted the lawyer as saying.

Investigators imagine the surrogate moms had been from across the nation and so they had been unaware they had been carrying embryos for the couple on the similar time.

Melissa Brisman, the legal professional for 2 of the surrogates, informed CBS News: “This is fantastic information that folks can be held chargeable for their actions and there can be penalties should you abuse the surrogacy system”.

If convicted as charged, Xuan faces a doable most sentence of 17 years and 4 months in state jail, whereas Zhang faces as much as 11 years and eight months. Li faces as much as 12 years.