LOS ANGELES (AP) — An extremely wealthy Chinese immigrant and his wife gathered a brood of 21 children through a surrogacy program and raised them in a “house of horrors,” prosecutors alleged Tuesday.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested at their sprawling mansion in Arcadia, a town about 12 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The children were beaten daily by cruel nannies while the couple monitored a network of surveillance cameras and laughed, prosecutors say. The couple allegedly recruited women across the country to serve as surrogates, promising them that they were simply looking for another child to expand their family.
The couple faces several counts of child abuse as well as conspiracy to commit child abuse, accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
“This case is unprecedented. It is horrible,” he said at a morning press conference. “The physical violence, beatings and punishments inflicted on these very young children are despicable. »
At an afternoon court appearance in nearby Pasadena, the couple pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations with a Mandarin interpreter. Prosecutors requested bail of $100 million per person because of the seriousness of the charges and the risk of flight.
The couple has more than 200 personal bank accounts and 70 business accounts with annual transfers of $250 million, Assistant Prosecutor MacKenzie Teymouri said.
Both are believed to have American, Mexican and Chinese passports, although investigators have not determined whether they are all legitimate; Prosecutors said they used fake passports to create some bank accounts.
Inside the couple’s home, investigators found a bank statement showing more than $70 million in one account as well as assets such as antique sculptures and specialty alcohol that totaled nearly $10 million, according to Teymouri.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kerry White set bail at $20 million each, with house arrest and an order of protection from visitation of their children.
Mitchell Krems, the couple’s attorney, called the bail amount “absurd” for the type of charges against his clients and said Zhang’s health should be taken into consideration.
Zhang, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, suffers from a rare form of leukemia and is recovering from a bone marrow transplant, Krems said.
Fifteen children were removed from the lavish home last year after an allegation of abuse, and six others living elsewhere were also found. They ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years, most between 1 and 3 years old. Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children, while the others ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years old. carried and delivered by surrogate mothers.
Hochman said the couple started an agency, Mark Surrogacy, that they operated out of their homes and hired surrogates throughout the United States. But prosecutors said the couple misled the women, telling some they couldn’t conceive and others that they only had one child and wanted one more to complete their family.
“The house can only be described as a house of horrors for these incredible young children,” Hochman said.
Prosecutor says videos show nannies and Xuan abusing children
Zhang and Xuan were first arrested in May 2025 after a hospital reported that their 2-month-old infant had suffered head trauma, the result of being violently shaken by a nanny, according to Arcadia police.
Police did not file charges at the time, saying they needed to complete the investigation.
Hochman said the couple set up three rooms they called learning centers, where children spent several hours a day sitting at desks under the supervision of nannies.
Through an extensive surveillance system that included motion-activated cameras, the couple watched and sometimes laughed as the nannies physically abused the children, including daily beatings, he said.
In one video, Xuan is shown entering a room and telling a nanny to hit a child harder, Hochman said, and in another he joins the nanny in hitting the child.
The nannies were allegedly told “not to leave any physical marks on the children”, and when police arrived to investigate in May 2025, the children were asked to deny being beaten.
After reviewing surveillance video, police issued an arrest warrant for Chunmei Li, the nanny seen injuring the 2-month-old infant. However, she fled to Tijuana, Mexico, and then China.
After the children were placed in state custody, Xuan and Zhang were allowed supervised visits. During one of those visits, Zhang read to a child and wrote in the book: “Tell them you’re happy with me, tell them you want to come home,” said lead prosecutor Teymouri.
Krems said it was “patently false” that Xuan was involved in beating one of the children and blamed all the abuse on nannies.
“My client, Mr. Xuan, intervened quickly,” Krems said. “He fired the nanny and kicked her out of the house.”
Prosecutor says reason for discipline still under investigation
Asked about the couple’s motives, Hochman said it was part of the investigation, as was the parentage of each child.
Krems, Xuan’s attorney, previously told ABC7 that Xuan’s goal was to raise children who would become productive adults.
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society. He’s not a complacent man,” Krems said. “Some rich people may spend on jewelry or cars, but he actually spends his resources to help his children get an education.”
After Tuesday’s hearing, he said Xuan and Zhang immigrated from China to exercise their freedom and have as many children as they wanted.
“If they were white, if they were Elon Musk and they weren’t Chinese, they wouldn’t be subject to this level of surveillance,” Krems said.
Surrogate mothers say they were misled
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry and give birth to a child for another person or couple, often after an embryo transfer.
There is no comprehensive federal law regulating surrogacy, leaving most of the rules to the states.
California is considered surrogacy-friendly because it has clear laws governing the process. Both parties must have attorneys and there must be a written, notarized contract before an embryo transfer takes place.
At least eight women have come forward to say they are being aggressively pursued to serve as surrogates. The women, many of whom were first-time surrogates, reported receiving misleading or incomplete information about the couple’s family situation and intentions.
Krems denied that the couple lied to the surrogates about their intentions.
The prosecutor’s office said a federal investigation was underway.
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Marcelo reported from New York.
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