ARCADIA, Calif. — A couple in California is facing charges of child abuse that allegedly centered on a home where at least 21 children lived.
The investigation was initially launched in May 2025 after police said they received an allegation of child abuse, The Associated Press reported.
A nanny was seen on video allegedly shaking and hitting an infant who at one point lost consciousness, KNBC reported.
The child was hospitalized a few days after the alleged incident.
The nanny who was recorded allegedly shaking the child has not been taken into custody. KTTV reported that she is believed to have fled to China.
Arcadia Police said they first arrested Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, after that incident. Police, however, did not file charges at the time, to continue their investigation, officials said.
During the investigation, detectives found that almost two dozen children from the age of 2 months to 13 years old were connected to the same home. Most were between 1 and 3 years old.
Fifteen children were taken from the residence last year after the allegations were levied; another six were found living elsewhere, the AP reported.
Investigators said some of the children were born through different surrogates and that they may have been victims of a scam, KNBC reported.
The AP said at least eight women said they were pressured to be surrogates, adding that they were given misleading or incomplete information about the family.
KCBS reported earlier this year that some of the children were born to people in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
One woman in Texas said she was misled into thinking that hers was the only surrogate-born child at the home, according to KNBC.
According to public records, Zhang owns a surrogacy agency known as Mark Surrogacy but now called Future Spring Surrogacy. One woman said she used the agency to transfer custody to the couple after having a child through in vitro fertilization, KTTV reported.
The couple told police they “wanted a large family ” and had what appeared to be legitimate birth certificates with Zhang listed as the mother of all the children and Xuan listed as the father of some, the AP reported.
Xuan’s attorney said his client wanted so many children because they could grow up and make meaningful contributions to society, KABC reported.
“That’s a great question, because on the surface, it seems like it’s very eccentric, but I have gotten to know Mr. Xuan on a very personal level as his attorney, and it has become apparent to me that his desire to have so many kids emanates from his altruism,” Mitchell Krems told KABC.
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society. He is not a man who is self-indulgent. Some who are wealthy might spend on jewelry or cars, but he is actually spending his resources to help his children become educated so that they can be the philosophers, the physicians, the researchers and the inventors that help society,” Krems explained.
On Tuesday, the FBI and other law enforcement were at the home with a search warrant, KCBS reported.
Zhang and Xuan were charged with conspiracy to commit child abuse, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in a news conference. They also face other charges.
The district attorney asked that they be held on $1 million bail.