It has been revealed that there were multiple opportunities to prevent the surrogate child abuse case involving 21 children in Arcadia, Los Angeles County.
Although seven related reports were filed over the past seven years, authorities did not separate the children from their parents until last year.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the 13th that Chinese-born couple Guochan Shuan (66) and Silvia Chang (39), indicted on child abuse charges, had been investigated by police and child welfare authorities multiple times before the case came to light.
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) received seven reports regarding the couple between 2019 and 2025. Police also requested charges in connection with past incidents on several occasions, but most did not lead to criminal punishment.
Notably, Chang was charged in 2019 for leaving her then-8-year-old daughter unattended in a hot car for hours. However, after fulfilling conditions agreed upon with prosecutors, the case was dismissed in 2023. In 2022, DCFS investigators even visited the couple’s mansion to check on the health of a 5-month-old infant.
However, authorities only separated the children in May of last year after a 2-month-old boy suffered brain hemorrhages from a nanny’s assault. Subsequent security footage revealed that some children were assaulted more than 20 times in a single incident and struck on the hands and body over 150 times.
The couple was reportedly involved in various other violent incidents beyond child abuse. Shuan was investigated in 2020 for brandishing a weapon and vandalism, and in 2021 for throwing a brick at a tenant, though he was not charged. Chang was also suspected of threatening to send gang members to a tenant.
While various allegations were being raised, the couple continued to increase their family through surrogacy. Shuan established ‘Mark Surrogacy Investment Company’ in 2021, which critics point out allowed them to bypass the client background and criminal record checks typically conducted by standard surrogacy agencies.
Surrogacy specialized attorney Maya Shulman pointed out that a proper agency or lawyer would never have accepted Chang as a client.
Five surrogate mothers have also filed a civil lawsuit alleging fraud, claiming the couple concealed their agency operations and the existing number of children. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently investigating potential money laundering and fraud related to the couple’s surrogacy business.
Meanwhile, the couple denies the charges. Shuan’s defense attorney argued that actual abuse was committed by the nannies and that past incidents did not lead to criminal convictions. Regarding the seven reports, he claimed it was surprising that a household with 21 children did not have even more reports.
The couple is currently being held with bail set at $20 million each.
