Family Law, Health Care / Medicine, Kids

Treachery, Deception, And Bad Fashion Sense In International Surrogacy

Surrogacy is a tough journey no matter what, but do your research.

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Start with a couple desperate for a child, and combine that with the exorbitantly expensive area of surrogacy. That’s a situation that begs for shady characters to engage in fraud and deception to make a quick, unethical buck.

Planet Hospital Founder Sentenced. Last week, a federal court in San Diego sentenced Archaryya “Rudy” Rupak to 24 months in prison. The court also ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine, in addition to the restitution he must pay to his victims. Rupak was the founder of “Planet Hospital.” That’s a company that promotes and coordinates international medical tourism. Originally focused on cosmetic surgery and organ transplants, the company expanded into surrogacy in 2006. It started in India, and then moved to Thailand, followed by Mexico. That’s when things went awry.

Hopeful parents-to-be were paying tens of thousands of dollars to Planet Hospital on the promise that the company would coordinate and pay the medical professionals involved in surrogacy. But the same hopeful parents would later be told by the medical clinic that the clinic had never been paid – and that if the couples wanted their embryos, they would need to pay the clinic the money owed by Planet Hospital (i.e., double pay). Although Rupak claims he is only guilty of poor business decisions or mismanagement, the federal court disagreed. It found him guilty of fraud, as well as interstate commercial bribery.

Fake Websites and Emails. Like an onion, Rupak’s plan had many layers. First, he would initially undercharge Planet Hospital’s clients to induce them to work with the company. Once they had committed significant time and resources, he would require additional payments. Rupak even went to great lengths to perpetuate his lies. The court noted that Rupak created a fake website and email address, and then sent emails claiming to be a physician from a fertility clinic who offered excuses as to why the surrogacy services has not been provided. (You can’t say Rupak lacks follow-through.)

Porn Director Fashion. In his blog, Australian surrogacy attorney Stephen Page described meeting Rupak in 2013. He notes that although he did “not profess to be an expert on the subject, my immediate impression of Mr. Rupach was that he seemed to be the archetypical 1970s Californian porn film director: open necked shirt, heavy gold chain and pulled back long black/grey hair.” Hmm. If nothing else, I give credit to Page for being candid.

But bad fashion was not the worst thing about Rupak. One of his former employees, Catherine Moscarello, described how she noticed things were not right from the very start. “The object was to get money… [Rupak] would keep changing [fertility] clinics, and whenever his relationship with a clinic in India or Thailand or Cancun broke off, he would disparage the clinic and the doctors there. But what was really happening was that he wasn’t paying his bills.” Moscarello characterized Rupak’s Planet Hospital as a classic Madoff-style ponzi-scheme.

Unfit Surrogates. Moscarello got involved with Planet Hospital because she personally needed a surrogate to have a child. Despite efforts to research what was happening, her embryos were transferred to the uterus of a surrogate that did not resemble the description given to her. Sadly, the surrogate ultimately miscarried. Moscarello learned that the surrogate was not, as she was told, 22 years old with a little boy, but barely 18 years of age with an infant, and had undergone a procedure to take out uterine cysts the day before the embryo transfer.

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Fraud and Egg Splitting? Moscarello alleged that Rupak’s underhanded dealings were not just financial. She said he also engaged in the practice of “egg-splitting.” This is a controversial practice even when all parties consent. When a woman agrees to be an egg donor, it is not uncommon for 15 or more eggs to be retrieved in one cycle. According to Moscarello, Rupak would take some of those retrieved eggs and sell them to other intended parents, despite lacking the recipient’s or donor’s knowledge or consent. So guess what: those of you who used Planet Hospital, your child may have more half-siblings out there than you expected!

Obviously, fraud is always terrible. But committing fraud when a person’s hopes and dreams are on the line is even worse. And selling eggs against the donor and recipients’ knowledge, if the allegations are true, is scary. So it is good to see a little bit of justice being done, and to know at least one fraudster is behind bars.

The Lesson? Always beware of the fraudsters. Surrogacy is a tough journey no matter what, but do your research. Ask to speak to past intended parents and gestational carriers. Look at Facebook carefully. No, seriously. Facebook has a group for everything now. Even for reviewing surrogacy agencies. And most importantly? Confirm that the agency owner is not dressed like a 1970s porn director. I can’t stress that enough.

Ellen TrachmanEllen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, adoption, and estate planning, and Co-Director of Colorado Surrogacy, LLC, a surrogacy matching and support agency. You can reach her at babies@abovethelaw.com.

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