Nearly 2 dozen children seized from Los Angeles couple accused of surrogacy scam
Authorities removed 21 children from the custody of a Los Angeles couple after discovering a surrogacy operation that allegedly deceived multiple surrogate mothers across the country.
Business busted: The investigation began in May when a 2-month-old baby was hospitalized with head injuries, prompting police to respond. Soon, officers discovered 15 more infants and toddlers under the care of six nannies at a nine-bedroom mansion in Arcadia. Surveillance footage revealed physical abuse of the children, including one nanny shaking the injured infant.
Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, were arrested May 9 on suspicion of felony child endangerment but released four days later without charges. Six more children were later removed from other locations, bringing the total to 21 children under 13 years old.
How the scheme ran: Xuan and Zhang operated their business, Mark Surrogacy, from their Arcadia home. Recruiting through Facebook, Zhang allegedly provided different accounts to various surrogates, telling some she had only one daughter. Court records, on the other hand, show she told a Los Angeles judge that she and Xuan had at least a dozen children.
Trending on NextShark:
Surrogates were allegedly paid tens of thousands of dollars each and told they were helping a couple struggling with infertility. Police had responded to at least six calls at the property since January 2022, including reports of suspected child abuse and illegal business operations.
The big picture: The case highlights regulatory gaps in the commercial surrogacy industry, particularly involving international clients seeking U.S. citizenship for newborns. Research shows that between 2014 and 2020, 41.7% of foreign intended parents using U.S. surrogacy services were Chinese nationals. Zhang told investigators she wanted many children after seeing how China's one-child policy had damaged families.
What's next: Authorities are still searching for 56-year-old Chunmei Li, the nanny who allegedly abused the hospitalized infant. The FBI has also joined the investigation, interviewing surrogates about potential baby-selling operations. At least two women reportedly remain pregnant with children arranged through Mark Surrogacy, with one surrogate considering legal options to become the child's foster parent. Meanwhile, the injured baby remains in medical care, and the other 21 children in foster care, as investigation continues.
Trending on NextShark:
This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices.
Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community.
Trending on NextShark:
Subscribe here now!
Download the NextShark App:
Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
13 minutes ago
- New York Post
140-pound, 12-foot python captured near South Carolina high school — and it took 3 guys to wrangle it: ‘Damn, he's strong as hell!'
No thankssssss! A monster python on the loose in South Carolina was caught steps from a local high school Monday night — and it took three brave souls to wrangle the beast back into captivity. The python was found down the road from Mid-Carolina High School in Prosperity, with local animal lover Warren Gallman and his family working together to track down the reptile and wrestle it into submission. Advertisement 5 It took three people to carry the python out of the grass where it was hiding and get it safely into a bin. Facebook/Warren Gallman 'As you can see from my battle wounds, I'm about 220 pounds and it pulled me to the grass,' Gallman told News19. 'It was strong. I got a few cuts on my arm.' Reports about the beast — at least 12 feet long and around 140 pounds — first started coming in to local police weeks ago, and when someone posted on social media that they'd seen it two miles from his house, Gallman set out with his son, nephew and a neighbor to 'got get it.' Advertisement After about 15 minutes, they located it near a railroad crossing, and with cameras rolling, they grabbed and grappled with the snake to corral it, ABC Columbia reported. 'Damn, he's strong as hell!' Gallman was heard saying in the clip. 'Are you pulling or is he doing it? Goddamn! Y'all pardon my language.' 5 The python spent weeks on the loose, with officials suspecting it was a pet that either escaped or was abandoned. Facebook/Warren Gallman 5 The group found the massive python just down the road from a local high school after a neighbor spotted it. Facebook/Warren Gallman Advertisement The crew finally got the python into a large bin and closed the top and took it home where it became a neighborhood sensation. Gallman's son has a pet ball python already and was prepared to help care for their newly captured serpent. Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster thanked the group for their hard work. 'Warren you and your friends are brave people and great Americans,' Foster wrote on Facebook. 'It is believed this was someone's pet and it was released because this type of snake is not native here,' he added. Advertisement Riverbanks Zoo and Garden's curator of herpetology, Sean Foley, identified the snake as an albino reticulated python and said it was not unheard of for owners to cut them loose after finding themselves in over their heads. 5 Gallman estimates the snake is between 12 and 15 feet and weighs around 140 pounds. Facebook/Warren Gallman 5 Gallman's son already has a pet python and is ready to take care of it until a proper sanctuary can be found. Facebook/Warren Gallman 'A lot of people buy these snakes when they're two or three feet long, and you've got a cage that's four feet long and that's fine for a couple of years, but eventually that snake's gonna get 15 plus feet long,' Foley told ABC. 'You need to make sure you can accommodate what that snake needs for its entire life — and that's a difficult situation, he added. Reticulated pythons are the longest snakes in the world and can grow to nearly 30 feet, according to Zoo Atlanta. They are non-venomous and typically kill their prey by wrapping their bodies around small animals to asphyxiate them. They are capable of killing and swallowing animals as large as deer and boar — and Gallman said the snake he caught seemed big enough to swallow a pet dog, cat, or even a 'very small child.' Advertisement 'It could cause some harm,' he said. Gallman has reached out to some zoos to see if they can take the python. And though he has been unsuccessful so far, he intends to keep searching until he finds a sanctuary that can take it.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New Year celebration videos misrepresented as China demonstrations
The beating of a young girl by three teenagers in southwestern China triggered public outrage, but a compilation viewed hundreds of thousands of times online does not show protests escalating into calls for the ouster of President Xi Jinping. The clips in fact show crowds gathering for New Year celebrations in several Chinese cities. The compilation, comprising four clips of huge crowds, was viewed more than 480,000 times after it was shared on Threads on August 6, 2025. "The Jiangyou incident in Sichuan, China, escalates as protestors force the police to retreat," reads part of the superimposed traditional Chinese text on the compilation, referring to a viral school bullying case in the southwestern city (archived link). "More than one million people participated in protests, calling for the overthrow of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party regime." Police said two teenage girls were sent to a correctional school for assaulting and verbally abusing a 14-year-old girl, footage of which was shared online. Onlookers and a third girl who participated in the abuse were "criticised and educated", the police said, adding that their guardians had been "ordered to exercise strict discipline". The case drew outrage online from some lamenting the punishment did not go further, and sparked rare protests in the country, where opposition to the ruling Communist Party and anything seen as a threat to the civil order is swiftly quashed. Footage showed crowds gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, with large crowds stretching around the block. Video also showed people being forcibly pulled aside, and police wearing SWAT uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection with hundreds of bystanders. Several Taiwanese news organisations included footage from the protests in their reports (archived here, here and here). But the circulating compilation, which was shared elsewhere on YouTube, TikTok and Facebook, misuses unrelated clips. Reverse image searches on Google and Baidu using keyframes from the visuals found they all predate the protests in Jiangyou. Taiwanese fact-checking organisation Taiwan Factcheck Center also previously debunked the false claim the clips show escalating protests in China (archived link). New Year's celebrations The first falsely shared clip was previously shared on December 31, 2024 on Douyin, where it included a hashtag for "Hong Kong New Year's Eve Fireworks" (archived link). The video corresponds to Google Street View imagery of a stretch of Nathan Road -- one of Hong Kong's main thoroughfares (archived link). The second clip had earlier been shared on January 1, 2024 on Douyin, where its caption said it showed a New Year's countdown celebration in Nanning, China (archived link). Street imagery from Baidu Maps shows it was filmed near the Nanning Department Store in Xingning District (archived link). The third clip was posted on December 31, 2024 on Douyin, with the post saying it showed New Year's Eve in Kunming, China (archived link). Street imagery from Baidu Maps shows the two stores found in the Douyin video in the Nanping Pedestrian Street area (archived link). Finally, the fourth clip in the compilation depicts a New Year celebration in Guiyang, China (archived link). The same clip was earlier shared in a Douyin post from January 1, 2025 (archived link). AFP has previously debunked false claims related to protests in China. Solve the daily Crossword
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Pam Bondi tightens grip on Justice Department after Epstein files fallout
Pam Bondi has emerged from self-exile following right-wing blowback over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and is reasserting control over the Justice Department and her role as attorney general. Bondi moved this week to install a new co-deputy FBI director alongside Dan Bongino, who had a heated confrontation with the attorney general in July and threatened to resign over the Epstein debacle. It's a signal, Trump administration officials say, that Bondi won the power struggle and Bongino is likely to exit. After being a regular presence on Fox News from the White House lawn since taking office in February, Bondi went into a nearly monthlong media lockdown after the president's MAGA-loyalist base reacted in an uproar at the Justice Department's unsigned July 7 memo that affirmed Epstein died by suicide and reneged on Bondi's promises to release investigative files. In twin Fox appearances in recent days, Bondi evinced that, for now at least, the Epstein imbroglio was behind her. Interviewers Sean Hannity and Larry Kudlow didn't ask about the files. 'It's over. She made it through. She's going to be fine,' one conservative ally said. In the days after the memo was released, the Justice Department initially kept up Bondi's public appearances. Officials told CNN at the time that they believed putting Bondi in front of cameras to talk about the administration's priorities, like drug seizures and targeting violent crime, would take focus away from Epstein. But the announcements were not enough to change the conversation. At a press conference at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters to announce fentanyl seizures, the first question Bondi took was about Epstein. 'Nothing about Epstein, not gonna talk about Epstein,' she said. After nearly a month without taking questions from the media, Bondi used her recent Fox appearances to focus on President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington, DC's police force for a crime crackdown. And she used one appearance to announce that she was bringing in another Trump cheerleader – Andrew Bailey, the Missouri attorney general – to take on a first-of-its-kind role alongside Bongino at the FBI. It's a not-so-subtle nod that Bongino's days at the FBI could be coming to a close, Justice Department officials say. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on the idea that Bongino was being eased out, saying that Bailey 'has been brought on as another set of very credible and experienced hands to work alongside the current Deputy Director Dan Bongino, under the leadership of the director Kash Patel and the Attorney General Pam Bondi.' Administration officials view the appearances as an effort to have the attorney general tip-toe back into the spotlight and a sign that they've weathered the Epstein scandal. Yet Bondi's days of freewheeling media appearances seem to be still be under some restrictions. Potential landmines still loom: House Republicans have subpoenaed the FBI's Epstein investigative files and Democrats are vowing to continue to make it an issue for Bondi and other officials when they appear for hearings. While privately White House officials complained about Bondi's handling of the Epstein information, allies say her position has never been in doubt, because of her value to Trump. Loyal and never one to shy away from attacking his political opponents, Bondi has broken the mold of more recent attorneys general, who usually seek to show some distance from presidents as a way to preserve the veneer of independence for prosecutorial decisions made by the Justice Department. DOJ declined to comment for this story. A month ago, amid the blowback from MAGA supporters, Bondi appeared to be under siege. Prominent MAGA influencers, including Laura Loomer, took aim at Bondi, calling for her to be fired. And more worrisome for the White House, Bondi's mess was threatening to consume the president and his agenda. Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News host, wrote on X that she saw two options: '1. There's no huge undisclosed there there on Epstein, Bondi misled on it (until she didn't) & Trump is quick to forgive a loyal soldier for being desperate to get on TV, or 2. There is a scandal that's being covered up & it's at his direction.' The anger was also coming from inside the administration, from some White House advisers and from across the street at the FBI, where Patel and Bongino had themselves played roles in playing up conspiracy theories about the Epstein case. FBI officials grew annoyed at what they characterized as Bondi's 'constant' presence on Fox News, when many believed she should instead be working on a rollout for the Epstein case information. By March, after Bondi had already angered MAGA faithful by orchestrating a White House event that provided them binders full of mostly public documents, FBI officials began warning that most of the documents being reviewed most likely wouldn't shed new light in the case. In reaction to the embarrassment, Bondi issued a memo claiming the FBI had withheld documents and the FBI assigned agents to pull overtime shifts working overnights and weekends to redact thousands of pages, purportedly to prepare them for release. Bondi kept telling Fox News hosts that the files would be released. But by May, Patel and Bongino began trying to prepare supporters for the let-down. In the wake of the public furor, department officials tried to point to the FBI leadership as a reason the outrage had been so focused on Bondi, alleging that its leaders were behind sorties in the press that said the FBI wanted more information released but was ultimately stymied by the bosses at the Justice Department. It was clear from their media appearances that Patel and Bongino still favored releasing more documents. The July 7 memo made clear the Justice Department was trying to shut down that option.
