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In May 2025, in the affluent suburb of Arcadia, California, a two-month-old baby boy, Walter, was sent to the hospital with a head injury. According to the police report, the woman who identified herself as his mother said the baby accidentally fell out of the bed.
However, doctors felt that something was wrong, saying that Walter's injuries were more likely caused by a car accident or that he had been violently shaken.
Suspecting child abuse, the police later searched the mansion where Walter lived and once detained his parents, 66-year-old Guojun Xuan and 39-year-old Silvia Zhang.
Prosecutors said what they found inside the house "can only be described as a 'house of horror'". The maze-like place, dotted with cameras, houses 14 children aged between six months and three years who were born through surrogacy. Prosecutors said the children were beaten every day.
The authorities later discovered that the address of this mansion was also registered as a surrogacy agency run by Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha, and the two recruited multiple surrogate mothers through the company.
In October this year, the two were arrested again and charged with conspiracy to abuse children. They deny the charges and remain in custody. The court set bail for each man at $20 million (£15 million).
If convicted, Xuan Guojun could be sentenced to a maximum of 17 years and 4 months in prison, and Zhang Shasha could be sentenced to a maximum of 11 years and 8 months in prison.
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"House of Horrors"
The two moved into the Arcadia mansion in April 2021. Online property information shows that the 10,000-square-foot (929-square-meter) mansion was sold for $3.3 million (£2.48 million) in the same year.
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The mansion has nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and a heated swimming pool.
Arcadia is an affluent suburb east of Los Angeles that local media calls "Chinese Beverly Hills." The latest U.S. census shows that nearly 60% of the local population is Asian, with the majority being Chinese. Local household incomes are also much higher than most American households.
"This house can only be described as a house of horrors for these young children. They were all brought here through a surrogacy process," Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a press conference after the charges were filed in October.
According to the indictment, 32 cameras were installed in the mansion. Video footage shows young children often sitting at desks for hours.
There was no camera in one of the rooms, but other cameras captured the nanny carrying the child into that room, and the child's screams could later be heard inside the room.
Prosecutors said that the injuries to the baby boy Walter were caused by a nanny named Chunmei Li (transliteration), and they have charged her with child abuse under circumstances likely to cause serious bodily harm or death.
Li Chunmei is still at large and has not been arrested.
CBS News, the BBC's US news partner, reported that Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha's lawyer, Mitchell Krems, said that based on the evidence he reviewed, the accusations were a "misrepresentation" of the facts.
Krems said his client, Xuan Guojun, was innocent.
"He was targeted because he was exercising his constitutional right to have a large family," he was quoted as saying by CBS.
How do they have so many children?
The United States has become one of the major surrogacy producing countries in the world. The so-called surrogacy means that a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child for another person.
A 2024 study of U.S. surrogacy data found that between 2014 and 2020, nearly one-third of intended parents were from outside the United States.
In China, which bans surrogacy, the number of clients is the largest among all countries, accounting for about 42% of overseas intended parents.
The United States provides many assisted reproductive technology services, but many people in China have difficulty accessing these services at home. Single women and LGBTQ people often face barriers to undergoing IVF treatments and egg freezing.
In addition, there are also couples who have been restricted by China's decades-old one-child policy. By the time the policy ended in 2016, their physical condition was no longer suitable to conceive on their own, so some turned to seek surrogacy overseas.
Court documents show that for the women who had acted as surrogates for Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha, their request to have children through surrogacy initially did not arouse much suspicion.
Several surrogate mothers are hired through an agency called Mark Surrogacy (transliteration).
Surrogacy agencies are generally regarded as independent third parties, but it was later discovered that "Mark Surrogacy" was originally run by the couple themselves. The relationship was not always disclosed to the surrogate mother, according to two separate lawsuits filed against the pair by some of the surrogate mothers.
Company registration documents show that Zhang Shasha is the manager of "Mark Surrogacy", and the same document also lists the couple's mansion in Arcadia as the company address.
At the hearing on October 16, Deputy District Attorney MacKenzie Cameron Teymouri also told the judge that the surrogacy agency run by Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha from their home had never matched any other intended parents with surrogate mothers.
One of the surrogate mothers, Tronderrica James, sued the two in 2025, claiming grounds for fraud and intentional misrepresentation.
She alleged that Zhang Shasha did not disclose her relationship with "Mark Surrogacy" at the initial stage, and said that if she had known the actual arrangement earlier, she would not have continued to participate.
James did not respond to the BBC's request for an interview.
The defendants later filed an application to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the woman did not have sufficient basis to bring the lawsuit.
The case is still pending.
Five other women, Stacy Raelyn King, Evelyn Senolos Areja, Kayla Elliott, Hallie Hernandez and Vanity McGoveran, filed separate lawsuits against Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha in August, claiming similar experiences.
The lawsuit alleges that Zhang Shasha failed to disclose her and Xuan Guojun's relationship with the surrogacy agency, nor did she tell them how many children they actually had.
"Each plaintiff was led to believe that she was the only woman surrogate for the couple and that she was assisting a family in conceiving a unique and precious child," the lawsuit states.
The two also used another outside surrogacy agency, California-based Babytree Surrogacy.
Patrick Yu, the founder of BabyTree Surrogacy, told the BBC that Xuan Guojun contacted them in 2018.
Yu said Xuan Guojun told him at the time that he wanted to have a big family. They later assisted Xuan Guojun in matching with several women, who gave birth to at least four babies.
"It wasn't until we saw news reports and learned he was under investigation that I realized for the first time that he had so many children. We immediately stopped working with him," Yu said.
However, one of the women they helped match in 2024 was pregnant when news of Walter's injury came to light last May. At that time, the police were investigating suspected child abuse, and the authorities had taken away the two's 21 children and arranged for them to receive protective care.
Yu told the BBC that he later arranged for the couple to meet the surrogate mother, who was newly pregnant at the time. He described the pair as sounding very confident and assured the surrogate mother that they had always treated the child well. The woman eventually decided to continue the pregnancy and gave birth to a baby in 2026.
Dr. Liang Yu (transliteration), vice chairman of the Chinese Special Interest Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and director of the reproductive clinical sciences program at Old Dominion University, said that the law does not limit how many surrogates an intended parent can request, nor does it require the disclosure of such information.
Yu Liang said that some reproductive banks or surrogacy agencies may have their own regulations, but the law does not make relevant requirements. A pair of intended parents can also cooperate with several surrogacy agencies at the same time without fully disclosing all information to each agency.
"This creates a gray area between the law and industry norms," she said.
Yu Liang added that in this gray area, she has seen many examples involving wealthy customers, and not only Chinese are among them. However, due to privacy protections and confidentiality agreements between doctors and fertility clinics, most cases are not known to the public.
"In other words, behavior like Xuan Guojun's is not unprecedented," she said.
The BBC contacted lawyers representing Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha regarding the allegations. Krems, who represents both men, did not respond.
Matt Koohanim, who represents Zhang Shasha, said the case will be handled through appropriate legal procedures.
These parents
At the hearing on October 16, Teimuri told the judge that the pair's net worth in 2025 would be well over $100 million (£75 million).
Taimouri also said that authorities found three passports belonging to Xuan Guojun, which were issued by Mexico, China and the United States.
Local Chinese media reported that Xuan Guojun was born in 1959 in Zhejiang Province, eastern China. At the age of 18, he started working as an accountant for a state-owned food company in Urumqi.
According to reports, in 1997, he was elected as a representative of the Urumqi Municipal People's Congress, and later became a representative of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region People's Congress in 2008. This is a provincial legislative position, similar to that of a state legislator in the United States.
He remained active in public affairs after moving to the United States. He serves as the president of the Xinjiang General Chamber of Commerce in the United States and the vice president of the Chinese Federation of America, and has appeared in public events since at least 2019.
A photo seen by the BBC shows Xuan Guojun holding hands with then Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang at an event in 2022.
When Wang Ailin ran for mayor in the same year, Xuan Guojun donated US$4,900 through a company under his name.
In May this year, Ailin Wang resigned as mayor of Arcadia after the U.S. Department of Justice accused her of illegally acting as an agent for China. She later pleaded guilty to related felonies.
The outside world knows little about Zhang Shasha. She worked as a real estate agent.
Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha never got married. According to court documents, Zhang Shasha was once married to another man, and the two divorced in 2022.
What will happen to these children?
At a hearing earlier this month, Taimurri told the judge there were 26 children related to the family.
According to the indictment, as of May 2025, a spreadsheet kept by Zhang Shasha listed a total of 21 children.
The children have since been removed and are being looked after by the state government. CBS News reports that five more children have been born since then.
One of the children born through a surrogate still lives in Virginia with his surrogate mother.
Melissa Epps was a surrogate mother hired by the pair. She learned last year that she was pregnant when authorities launched an investigation and decided to keep the baby with her.
The two later sued Epps for breach of the surrogacy contract, demanding that she return the baby girl and seeking $1 million in damages.
Epps initially did not have a lawyer and had to represent himself in court. Later, Pamela DeCamp, an attorney with the Virginia Legal Aid Society, took over the case.
Epps declined to be interviewed by the BBC. Her lawyer, DeCamp, said in a statement provided to the BBC that they were "extremely grateful to the District Attorney of Los Angeles, California for their efforts to obtain justice for these young children."
The case will continue to be heard until March next year. The baby girl is currently in the custody of social services but still lives with Epps. She recently celebrated her first birthday.
"She remains safe and happy in Virginia, and we are confident she will continue to be so," DeCamp said.
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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