Silvia Zhang: Surrogacy Operation, Mansion Raid, and FBI Case

The Silvia Zhang Arcadia surrogacy case centers on Zhang and her partner Guojun Xuan, an unmarried couple from China whose 17,000-square-foot Arcadia, California mansion was raided in May 2025 after a two-month-old boy in their care arrived at a hospital with severe head injuries. Inside, police found 21 children, nearly all born to surrogate mothers who say they were deceived about the arrangement. The children were placed in state custody, the couple was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment, and state, federal, and civil investigations have unfolded across four states. As of early 2026, neither Zhang nor Xuan had been formally charged.

How the Case Came to Light

In May 2025, a local hospital contacted Arcadia police after a two-month-old boy was brought in with head trauma medical staff described as consistent with “either a traffic accident or the child being shaken and/or dropped.”¹ A police affidavit later indicated photographs from two days before the hospitalization already showed signs of a head injury, suggesting delayed care.²

Investigators identified a nanny, Chunmei Li, as the primary suspect. Security camera footage from inside the home reportedly showed Li shaking the infant after a “thud or hit.”³ An arrest warrant was issued for Li, whose whereabouts remained unknown as of mid-2025. Zhang and Xuan were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect for allegedly failing to intervene and delaying medical treatment. Both were released after bail was set at $500,000 each.⁴

What Police Found Inside the Home

When detectives served a search warrant at the home on Camino Real Avenue, they found 15 children on the premises and located six more staying with family friends. Ages ranged from two months to 13 years, with most between one and three.⁵ All 21 were placed in the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Surveillance footage from inside the home showed a classroom-like setup with toddlers seated at rows of desks. At least six staff members, described as “teachers/nannies,” were captured spanking children, hitting a baby in the face while the child sat in a high chair, and forcing children to perform squats as discipline.¹ All the children had shaved heads.² Neighbors reported seeing children in uniform-style shorts and t-shirts lined up in the backyard for potty training and described frequent screaming from the house. One neighbor said the environment resembled a “drill school.” Arcadia Police Captain Kollin Cieadlo said the treatment “went well beyond what a reasonable person would expect to be normal discipline.”

The Surrogacy Operation

Police determined that all but one or two of the children were born to surrogates.⁴ The couple recruited women through Facebook and worked through two agencies they controlled: Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC and Future Spring Surrogacy. Both were registered to the couple’s own home and office addresses, a fact not disclosed to the women who signed on.¹ Mark Surrogacy’s business license was terminated in June 2025.⁵

Surrogates were typically offered between $45,000 and $70,000 plus pregnancy-related expenses, sometimes paid in cash.² Xuan supplied the sperm for the embryos, and anonymous donors provided the eggs. Dr. John Wilcox of HRC Fertility stated in an affidavit that sperm was collected from Xuan in 2021.¹ Zhang, who managed the agency, produced birth certificates from multiple states listing herself as the mother of each child, and the documents appeared legitimate to investigators.⁶

What Surrogates Say They Were Told

After the raid, multiple surrogates said the agency systematically misrepresented the couple. Women reported being told Zhang and Xuan had only one child, or none, and had struggled with IVF. Hallie Weaver said the couple’s “entire profile was a lie.”⁷

Kayla Elliott said the agency discouraged her from contacting the parents directly, telling her they were “very busy people.” When she asked about the use of multiple surrogates, the agency told her “they just want a big family.” A potential surrogate identified as “Esperanza” described contract red flags, including a requirement for two embryo implants instead of one and the removal of a standard clause requiring the intended parents’ background information. When she tried to raise concerns, the couple’s lawyer hung up on her.⁸ Attorney Pamela DeCamp, representing one surrogate, said her client “had no idea they wanted dozens of children and would never have wanted to do that if she knew.”¹

Where the Children Are Now

A Los Angeles County juvenile dependency court officially denied reunification for the original 21 children. As of May 2026, those children were to remain in foster care, with the expectation of being placed into guardianships or adopted by their foster families.⁹ Los Angeles dependency hearings are closed to the public.

In the six months after the raid, at least five more surrogate-born children arrived in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Georgia from pregnancies already underway when the original 21 were seized. All were taken into state custody upon birth.¹ By early 2026, the total number of children separated from the couple had reached at least 27.⁹

Two Virginia surrogates, Melissa Epps and Stacy King, cut off contact with the couple before delivering in fall 2025 and refused to hand over the newborns. Xuan and Zhang responded with breach-of-contract lawsuits against each woman, demanding custody and $1 million in damages, far above the original contract values of $70,000 and $45,000.¹ Epps, represented by the Virginia Legal Aid Society, and King are seeking custody themselves. The children remained in state custody while litigation continued.¹⁰

In Georgia, Hallie Weaver gave birth to a boy she named Gabriel on August 14, 2025. She filed to adopt him and was appointed by the state as his primary caregiver, a designation short of foster or kinship placement.² Xuan and Zhang attended confidential parentage hearings in Georgia, but Weaver reported the couple appeared unaware she was caring for the child. As of February 2026, the adoption remained in limbo while the state retained formal custody.¹⁰ Weaver was fundraising to cover legal fees and $12,000 in unpaid delivery bills.⁷

Criminal and Federal Status

Neither Zhang nor Xuan had been formally charged with a crime as of early 2026. Arcadia police arrested the couple on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect but held off on formal charges while the broader investigation continued. The department said detectives believed there were “other instances of abuse” beyond the injured infant.¹¹

The FBI has been investigating the couple’s surrogacy arrangements since at least 2023. At least four surrogates and two attorneys reported being contacted by FBI agents, and a Justice Department source confirmed federal prosecutors were involved.¹ The FBI officially stated it could “neither confirm nor deny” the investigation.² In November 2025, U.S. Senator Rick Scott introduced legislation that would ban surrogacy for foreign nationals from certain countries, citing the Arcadia matter as evidence that “surrogacy is even being used to facilitate human trafficking.”

Attorneys for the couple have said the abuse allegations are “over sensationalized and false,” that the pair simply wanted a large family, and that they expect to prevail in every case and regain custody of every child.

Who Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan Are

Zhang immigrated to the United States from China in 2016 through a marriage to American citizen Henry Hong-Ching Tang, bringing her daughter Susan, born in 2011. She became a licensed real estate agent and, according to reporting by The New Yorker, sold 162 properties worth $120 million in five years, often through shell companies linked to Xuan and in cash. She opened and operated Mark Surrogacy to recruit gestational carriers, managed the couple’s household, and served as a surrogate herself for at least one of the children.² Despite what surrogates were told, she and Xuan are not married.

Xuan, born in 1959 in Zhuji, China, held senior positions in the Urumqi Municipal People’s Congress beginning in 1997 and served in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region People’s Congress from 2008 through 2012.¹² Those legislative bodies have been implicated in the mass surveillance, forced labor, and forced sterilization of the Uyghur minority, a campaign a U.S. House committee described as genocide.⁷ The nonprofit Justice For All petitioned the U.S. State Department and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to investigate how Xuan obtained U.S. residency, citing three federal frameworks that arguably should have barred entry: the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, the Global Magnitsky Act, and Section 7031(c) of the State Department appropriations law.¹³ In the United States, Xuan built a real estate portfolio linked to more than 50 limited-liability corporations and owned the $3.2 million Arcadia mansion.² He also held the presidency of the U.S.-Xinjiang Chamber of Commerce.

Related Investigations and Lawsuits

Xuan’s name also appeared in a civil complaint filed by the City of El Monte in September 2025. The city’s “Complaint for Abatement” targeted a commercial complex called Pacific Place, owned by Xuan’s company Hongxing Investment, alleging the property housed a “well-established, sophisticated, and persistent criminal enterprise” involving unlicensed gambling and narcotics. Between 2021 and 2024, El Monte police raided the property five times, seizing evidence of an illicit casino, methamphetamine, marijuana, psilocybin mushroom farms, counterfeit currency, and weapons. The complaint named Haoren “Dragon” Ma, a tenant and convicted felon, as the alleged ringleader and asserted that Xuan transferred ownership among companies he controlled to “conceal ownership, frustrate enforcement and continue Ma’s unlawful gambling and narcotics operations.”¹⁴ Authorities said the surrogacy and El Monte investigations remained separate, and no criminal charges related to the gambling or drug allegations had been filed against Xuan as of the reporting.¹⁵

The couple’s real estate company, Yudao Investments, has faced its own litigation. In December 2023, six former employees filed a class-action complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging the company misclassified non-exempt workers to avoid wage and overtime obligations.¹⁶ A separate suit by former eviction manager Alejandro Diaz alleged wrongful termination, battery, and assault by Xuan; it settled in early 2025 with a confidentiality clause.⁷

1
CBS News. California Couple, 21 Children, Surrogate Babies Custody
2
The New Yorker. The Babies Kept in a Mysterious Los Angeles Mansion
3
ABC7. Documents Detail How Nanny Chunmei Li Allegedly Shakes Baby
4
NBC News. Surrogate Was Horrified to Learn Couple She Bore Baby for Had 21 Children
5
ABC7 Chicago. Surrogacy Scandal: 21 Children Taken From Arcadia Couple
6
Fox 59. Authorities Take Custody of 21 Kids in California While Surrogate Moms Claim Couple Misled Them
7
Courthouse News Service. Surrogate Mother Fights to Save Baby 23 Amid Investigation, Custody Dispute
8
WSLS. Two Surrogates Speak Out About California Couple Under Investigation
9
Center for Bioethics and Culture. An Update From Arcadia
10
New York Post. Surrogate Sues Chinese Parents of 26 She Claims Duped Her
11
KSAT. Questions About Surrogacy Are Raised in Case of California Couple
12
The Maine Wire. Meet the Chinese Congressman Accused of Abusing 21 Kids in U.S. Surrogacy Scheme
13
Justice For All. Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign Calls for U.S. Investigation
14
Los Angeles Times. Arcadia Surrogacy Case
15
ABC7. SoCal Man at Center of Surrogacy Scandal Connected to Properties Linked to Alleged Gambling, Drugs
16
Courthouse News Service. Powers v. Yudao Investments Complaint