Southern California couple arrested in child abuse investigation

WARNING: Some of the details are graphic. Viewer and reader discretion is advised.

ARCADIA, Calif. (NBC, KYMA) - Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called it a "House of Horrors" as he announced the arrest of 66-year-old Guojun Xuan and 39-year-old Silvia Zhang with conspiracy to commit child abuse, child abuse and witness intimidation.

Hochman said the allegations go back to 2021 when Xuan and Zhang set up mark surrogacy investment and ran it out of a 10,000-square foot Arcadia home.

The complaint alleges the couple used the agency to hire surrogates throughout the country, paying them thousands of dollars while using different stories.

"The complaint identifies several of those surrogates that were told various things by the defendants. One in particular, identified as MC, was paid for both a first and second surrogacy amounts up to $75,000 per surrogacy," Hochman shared. "And she was told initially that Zhang was a single mother struggling to conceive when she agreed to act as a surrogate. That was a false statement."

But after Zhang brought a two-month-old baby to the hospital with a serious head injury, hospital staff reported it to Arcadia police where a search warrant found 16 children living inside the home.

"They kept a spreadsheet of the different children by full name and date of birth and which surrogate they had come from," Hochman said.

Evidence collected at the home includes 32 motion-activated cameras, recording video and audio of different rooms in the house showing

The children sitting in "learning centers" for hours while allegedly being "disciplined" by nannies.

"That discipline is nothing short of absolute physical abuse, beatings and punishment on a daily basis," Hochman spoke. "Each defendant monitored the nannies discipline of the children that were happening in the three learning centers."

In one instance, the complaint said Xuan pushed a nanny to hit a child harder. In another, it's alleged he joined in on the physical punishment, repeatedly striking the child's bare buttocks and delivering open-handed blows to the child's head.

"The case is unprecedented. It is horrific and the physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable," Hochman expressed.

"My client actually fired these nannies after learning about their abuse," Mitchell Krems, Xuan's attorney who said his client came to the U.S. because of China's one child policy, which was officially lifted in 2016. "My client is in the real estate industry and he wanted to have the freedom and the liberty to be able to have as many children as he wanted to carry on his legacy."

While having many children is not illegal, why he and Zhang allegedly used surrogates with false motives is still unknown.

For now, they are being held on a $100 million bond.

If convicted, Zhang faces a maximum sentence of 17 years, while Xuan faces a maximum of 11 years.