Surrogacy business owner sentenced to two years for scamming clients

A woman who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients in a surrogacy scam was sentenced on May 16 to two years in prison as part of a plea deal. She had faced up to 20 years.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• A woman operating three surrogacy businesses scammed clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and will spend two years in prison as part of a plea deal.

• Would-be parents lost both their money and their embryos, many of whom cannot be located.

• Surrogates in Mexico say they never received payment for their ‘services.’

THE DETAILS:

Lillian Arielle Markowitz, 40, (also known as Lillian Frost), owned three surrogacy businesses: My Donor Cycle, Surrogacy Beyond Borders, and Expecting Surrogacy. She promised clients that she would keep their costs low by outsourcing surrogates from Mexico, assuring them that they would have babies no matter what. However, she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the escrow accounts set up for her clients to pay for the surrogacy costs.

According to the Times of San Diego, Markowitz’s plea agreement includes admitting that she submitted fraudulent escrow disbursement requests to the escrow company. She also forged a client signature and did not place client funds in the escrow accounts as promised, but into a business checking account used to pay surrogacy business and personal expenses as well as expenses for her yoga and float business.

In addition to jail time, Markowitz will pay $389,142 in restitution to her former clients.

“Lillian Markowitz turned her surrogacy businesses into a Ponzi scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon. “She did not simply steal funds. She stole the dream of parenthood from her victims. She exploited hope and heartbreak for profit. Those who prey on the desperate will be held accountable.”

One former client, Gabrielle Ackerman, created multiple embryos with her husband, but the surrogacy attempts in Mexico repeatedly failed. Their experience working with Markowitz ended with a baby who was born prematurely at 28 weeks in Mexico and did not survive. The doctor in Mexico noted that if the baby had been born in the US, he or she could have survived. They never received the ashes of the baby as Markowitz promised, and they have no idea what happened to their remaining embryos.

“I’m holding onto hope that our other embryos weren’t sold,” Ackerman said. “I worry someone is going to call me one day after a DNA search and say, ‘I’m yours.’”

In addition, although surrogate fees range from $30,000 to $60,000 in the US, according to NBC, Markowitz told couples they could save “over 60% compared to US options” by using surrogates in Mexico. However, surrogates in Mexico claim Markowitz never paid them the money she promised.

COMMENTARY:

Creating children through artificial reproductive technology opens the door for countless abuses, as adults who understandably want children and the people they pay to create those children believe the ends justify the means. Markowitz’s attorney claims she simply made “catastrophic choices” about her business.

The process of creating children in a lab involves labeling and classifying them while they are embryos, often destroying those who don’t make the cut. Parents give tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to fertility businesses, which are built to make a profit, to get the ‘best’ embryos and are even offered the choices of implanting a girl or a boy, a baby with blue eyes or brown, or the baby with the ‘highest’ IQ.

Meanwhile, the women choosing to become surrogates are typically underprivileged and are looking to better their financial situation through an act that is largely seen as self-sacrificing and generous. But, like the children involved, these women are often treated like property rather than people.

THE BOTTOM LINE: 

Artificial reproductive technology businesses seek to profit from would-be parents in an emotionally charged situation, turning the gift of creating children into a business venture in which children are denied their basic human rights, and lives are often left broken or destroyed.