A Southern California couple was arrested and charged Tuesday with abusing their 15 children, prosecutors said. Almost all of the couple's children were born through surrogacy.
According to the felony indictment, the couple, 66-year-old Xuan Guojun and 39-year-old Zhang Shasha, lived in a 10,287-square-foot (approximately 956 square meters) mansion in Arcadia, a suburb of Los Angeles. They hired multiple nannies to look after their many children and administered corporal punishment to them. Some of the children were only two months old at the time of the crime.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office alleged that Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha ordered the nanny to physically punish the children, and sometimes laughed while watching.
Prosecutors said the nanny beat the toddler with shoes and a stick. Prosecutors said that on at least one occasion, Xuan Guojun personally participated in the abuse, lifting a child with one hand and hitting the child repeatedly on the head.
"This house can only be described as a house of horrors," Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hockman said at a news conference Tuesday. "So-called discipline is nothing but physical abuse, and children are beaten and punished every day."
Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha appeared in a Pasadena, Calif., court on Tuesday for arraignment on felony charges of conspiracy to commit child abuse. Xuan also faces one felony count of child abuse.
If convicted of all charges, Xuan Guojun could be sentenced to up to 17 years in prison, and Zhang Shasha could be sentenced to up to 11 years and 8 months in prison.
According to the New Yorker, the couple made their fortune in commercial real estate and have a total of 27 children. Investigators last year discovered a spreadsheet kept by Zhang Weiwei that had the names of 21 children on it. The couple has since had six more children via surrogate, the magazine reported. Most of the children were taken into care by the state last year and are still in the care of foster families.
Xuan's lawyer, Mitchell Krems, told reporters on Tuesday that his client had never abused any of his children. He said that Xuan Guojun moved to the United States to enjoy the freedom of raising a large family, and that he and Zhang Shasha were being unfairly targeted.
“If they weren’t Chinese, they wouldn’t be subject to this level of scrutiny,” Krems said. "He was unfairly scrutinized because he had so many children. It's not illegal to have so many children."
Most of the conduct alleged by prosecutors was captured on surveillance systems located throughout the couple's home, according to the indictment. The system includes approximately 32 motion-sensing cameras that record video and audio throughout the house.
Prosecutors said the children spent several hours a day in makeshift classrooms at their homes. The indictment stated that surveillance video also captured multiple nannies taking the children into a room that did not have a camera installed, but as soon as the children entered, they could hear screaming coming from inside. The nannies were not prosecuted.
The criminal investigation against Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha began in May 2025. At that time, staff at a children's hospital in Los Angeles called the police and reported that a two-month-old baby boy was sent to the hospital with severe head injuries. The injury seemed inconsistent with Zhang Shasha's statement that the child fell from the bed.
After a police investigation, one of the couple's nannies, Li Chunmei, was charged on suspicion of abusing the baby boy in an act that could have resulted in death. Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Li Chunmei had fled to China and that a warrant for her arrest was still active.
The couple was arrested last year on suspicion of child endangerment, but prosecutors did not file charges at the time and the pair spent several days in jail before being released.
On Tuesday, Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha were also each charged with one count of accessory after the fact. Prosecutors said the two tried to help Li Chunmei evade arrest.
Xuan Guojun and Zhang Shasha were also charged on Tuesday with multiple counts of obstructing witness testimony. Prosecutors said the couple told the children not to reveal the beatings to investigators and asked them to deny being taught how to answer questions. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kerry White set bail for each at $20 million. Xuan Guojun's lawyers argued that the couple did not pose a flight risk because Xuan Guojun had recently received a bone marrow transplant. He said that Xuan Guojun suffered from leukemia. Xuan Guojun appeared in court that day in a wheelchair.
Deputy District Attorney Mackenzie Temurry told the court that detectives were conducting an intensive search of the couple's home. So far, they have uncovered antique sculptures, millions of dollars worth of alcohol, cash, and bank statements from 200 bank accounts and 70 business accounts. They also found multiple genuine and forged passports.
