California pair charged with abusing at least 14 surrogate-born children
Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang were arrested at their Arcadia mansion after 21 children were removed from their custody last year.
California couple charged with abusing at least 14 surrogate-born children
A California couple has been charged with multiple counts of abusing at least 14 children born through surrogacy — some as young as two months old — as well as dissuading a witness.
“The number of children who were subjected to this alleged horrific abuse is unprecedented,” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan J Hochman said in a statement.
Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, whom US media describe as a couple, were arrested Tuesday at their mansion in Arcadia.
The pair entered not guilty pleas at a Pasadena courthouse, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.
Xuan, 66, and Zhang, 39, are accused of conspiring to subject 15 of the 16 children living in their home to repeated physical abuse, after 21 children were removed from their custody last year.
The couple operated their own surrogacy business and are accused of making false claims to at least two women who became surrogates, suggesting that Zhang was having difficulty conceiving, according to the criminal complaint.
As of May 2025, Zhang kept a spreadsheet tracking 21 children, including those born to surrogates.
Officials said the investigation started that month when Zhang took a two-month-old boy to hospital with a head injury, telling medical staff the baby had fallen off a bed.
The couple’s lawyer, Mitchell Krems, said the allegation was a “mischaracterisation” based on the evidence he has reviewed, CBS News in Los Angeles reported.
Hospital staff alerted law enforcement, and when police went to the home they found three separate rooms described as “learning centres” and overseen by multiple nannies, which Hochman called a “house of horrors”.
The mansion allegedly contained 32 motion-activated cameras, which Hochman said the couple used to monitor the discipline administered by the nannies.
Footage allegedly shows the nannies spanking, slapping or hitting the children.
One nanny, Chunmei Li, is accused of striking the two-month-old baby who suffered the head injury two days before he was taken to hospital.
Krems said Li was quickly dismissed, CBS News LA reported.
Li, 58, had previously been charged with one felony count of child abuse under conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. Hochman said she was on the run with a $105,000 (£88,800) warrant for her arrest.
In July 2025, authorities first raided the couple’s home and took 21 children into state custody.
At the time of the initial raid, the Arcadia Police Department said the children were aged from two months to 13 years old, though most were between one and three years old.
Fifteen of the children were removed from the couple’s home, while six others were living elsewhere and were also later taken into custody.
Krems said his client Xuan was innocent.
“He is being targeted for exercising his constitutional right to have a large family,” CBS News quoted the lawyer as saying.
Investigators believe the surrogate mothers came from across the country and did not know they were carrying embryos for the couple at the same time.
Melissa Brisman, the attorney for two of the surrogates, told CBS News: “This is wonderful news that people will be held responsible for their actions and there will be consequences if you abuse the surrogacy system”.
If convicted as charged, Xuan faces a possible maximum sentence of 17 years and four months in state prison, while Zhang faces up to 11 years and eight months. Li faces up to 12 years.