A former Xinjiang lawmaker and his wife raised 21 children, 19 of them born through surrogacy, in an Arcadia mansion that prosecutors call a “house of horrors.”
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested October 6 and pleaded not guilty. Bail is $20 million each. Both face conspiracy to commit child abuse. Xuan also faces a direct child-abuse count. They are charged with helping a nanny flee to China.
Since 2021 they ran a surrogacy company from the house, paying American women up to $135,000 per pregnancy while allegedly lying about how many children they already had. One surrogate was told Zhang was a struggling single mother.
The case started in May 2025 after a 2-month-old was hospitalized with a brain bleed. Prosecutors say about 32 cameras recorded nannies hitting toddlers with shoes and sticks while the parents sometimes watched and laughed. Screams came from a room with no cameras. Fourteen children are identified as abuse victims.
Searches found cash, millions in alcohol, records for roughly 200 bank accounts and 70 companies, and multiple passports, some allegedly fake.
Xuan once served in the Xinjiang legislature and on a body tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front system. He has been photographed with a former Arcadia mayor who later pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent for Beijing.
thebureau.news/p/a-mansion-f… A Mansion Full of Surrogate Children Belongs to a Former Xinjiang Lawmaker, in an L.A. Suburb Where Separate Beijing Influence, Crime and Intelligence Cases Keep Surfacing