The couple monitored more than a dozen of their surrogate-born children from 32 cameras spread around their Los Angeles-area mansion, authorities say, watching from a live CCTV feed as nannies meted out brutal punishment.
The father, walking in on a nanny striking one child, encouraged them to hit harder and joined in, according to law enforcement. The mother allegedly laughed from her office as she watched a child get beaten with a shoe.
And in one room not under surveillance, officials say, children’s screams could be heard.
“This house could only be described as a house of horrors,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Tuesday as he announced child abuse charges against the couple, Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang.
Xuan, 66, and Zhang, 39, are accused of recruiting surrogates from around the country to bear their children under false pretenses and then raising those children in an abusive home. The case has drawn national attention since authorities began investigating more than a year ago, with surrogates seeking answers and going viral online.
The couple had at least 21 children, but not all of them were living at the house when authorities began investigating last year. The defendants are accused of abusing at least 14.
The motive behind the surrogacy operation remains mysterious. Asked about it Tuesday, Hochman said it is part of an ongoing investigation.
With the couple under scrutiny before the charges were announced, a lawyer for Xuan, Mitchell Krems, told local news outlet ABC 7 that the defendant was driven by “his altruism.”
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society,” Krems said. Xuan, he added, wanted to spend his wealth to educate his children so “they can be the philosophers, the physicians, the researchers and the inventors that help society.”
Zhang told the Wall Street Journal last year that “we never sell our babies” and “take care of them very well.”
Krems did not respond to questions on Tuesday after authorities announced charges against his client. It was not immediately clear whether Zhang has a lawyer.
The couple faces one count each of conspiracy to commit child abuse. Xuan, who is also charged with child abuse and other crimes, faces a maximum sentence of more than 17 years in prison if convicted, officials said. Zhang — who is also charged with other offenses including dissuading a witness — faces more than 11 years imprisonment if convicted.
Xuan and Zhang operated a surrogacy agency, Mark Surrogacy Investment, out of their 10,000-plus-square-foot mansion in Arcadia, California, starting in 2021, according to authorities. They paid surrogates as much as $135,000 to have their children and often deceived them, officials allege.
One surrogate was told that Zhang was “a single mother struggling to conceive,” according to charging documents. Another got pregnant not knowing the couple already had more than a dozen children.
They tracked the children — ranging in age from 2 months old to more than 4 years old — on a spreadsheet and employed nannies to supervise them. At “learning centers” in the mansion, the children sat at desks for several hours a day, charging documents say.
The discipline they allegedly received was “nothing short of absolute physical abuse, beatings and punishment on a daily basis,” Hochman, said at a news conference, calling the case “unprecedented.”
Authorities grew suspicious of the couple after they brought a 2-month-old infant to the hospital with a head injury in May 2025. A nanny had struck the child in the head, but Zhang falsely told hospital staff that the baby had fallen off a bed, according to charging documents.
Around that time, Xuan and Zhang met with the nannies to urge that they not leave visible marks.
Officials said it took time to put together the complex case.
Hochman said prosecutors will be seeking $100 million bail due to the seriousness of the charges, the defendants’ wealth and concerns that they pose a flight risk. Authorities have also filed charges against one of the nannies but said they have not been able to arrest her.
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