Dearest Gentle Reader,
Greetings and welcome, esteemed readers, to another chapter of our shared journey. Much has transpired in the intervening months, so let us dive into the latest revelations with all the gusto of an eagerly awaited debutante ball!
(Shout out to Lady Whistledown and ChaptGPT…I’ll go back to writing as Sarah now!)
Last August (2023), we began the process of our next surrogacy journey. With two embryos remaining and our surrogate wanting to work with us again, we knew we had to try to give Rosie a sibling. We decided not to use the agency again because the most important thing they did was match us with our surrogate. Their fees are astronomical and many fees/services were useless to us. We decided to go “independent,” which is when you go through a surrogacy journey without an agency. It is not rocket science, however, it does involve quite a bit of paperwork. Last Fall consisted of medical clearance, psych clearance, life insurance, and contracts.
By February we were all cleared, so our surro began meds and we transferred our third embryo at the beginning of March. The embryo stuck but, unfortunately, resulted in an early miscarriage. This was during my trip to Italy with my sister and dad. I guess if you’re going to find out about a miscarriage, there’s no better place than at a winery in Tuscany, huh. It took the sting out just a bit but, obviously, we were very disappointed.
Knowing we had just one embryo left was a bit stressful but we very much feel at peace with whatever God’s plan is for us. If we are meant to have one child, then we are so lucky that we have our perfect Rosie. If we are meant to have another, then we will! So we carried on. It took a while for our surro’s body to regulate after the miscarriage so it was just a few months of waiting and waiting.
However, during that waiting, we discovered that something absolutely awful had happened. Let me back up though and give some background:
In the world of surrogacy, couples looking to partner with a surrogate typically use an escrow company to manage the funds. This is the norm and expectation in America. This arrangement assures the surro that the parents have the financial resources needed to compensate her throughout their shared journey. When you choose an escrow company, you sign a contract with them that they will manage your funds. You give them the contract between you and your surro, and they make the appropriate payments as the journey progresses. We chose to contract with Surrogacy Escrow Account Management (SEAM) because they are one of the top two most recommended, most reputable surrogacy escrow companies in the country.
Back to the bad news: Mid May to early June, parents and surros noticed that payments weren’t going through as stated in the accounts. As in, payments were posted, but no payments were received. And then all payments stopped. The money then seemingly became frozen. Around mid-June, SEAM sent out an email apologizing for late payments and another one two days later saying they are facing legal issues and cannot provide further comment. And then nothing.
The owner, Dominique Side, has gone silent. She sent out one email a bit later apologizing for her unresponsiveness, stating that “My company and I have been notified that we are subject to an active investigation by federal authorities. Under advice of counsel, I am not permitted to respond to any inquiries regarding the investigation.”
This means that all of the money that hundreds of parents have put into this account cannot be accessed…and appears to be gone. The authorities are estimating over 10 million dollars could have been embezzled. We have filed claims with the Texas AG office (the company is based in Houston) and the Maryland AG office. The FBI is investigating and we have filed documentation with them. Some parents have joined together in a lawsuit, however, we are unsure if accruing lawyer fees is a smart move if there is no money to recover.
There have been numerous attempts to contact her but all attempts have gone unanswered. This article does a good job at explaining the ins and outs of Dominique’s business dealings and where all the money is suspected of going- https://www.fox26houston.com/news/seam-surrogacy-firm-multi-million-dollar-misappropriation-scandal-dominique-side.
There was a preliminary court hearing but she did not show up. Her *former* business partner showed up without counsel. I believe that a trial start date has been set for January. This embezzlement scandal is still very much under investigation with little more information than what has been posted in articles.
There was a Facebook group created for victims of this scandal and we are banding together as best as we can. We have filed all the reports so our next focus is media attention. We are hoping that more stations begin picking up the story.
This is such an awful thing to happen in the surrogacy world. There are surros who are pregnant and unable to get their money. The parents who had their money in this account are out 10k, 50k, 100k. There are parents who saved for decades to have a child and may have lost their chance at bringing home a baby.
It has been a wild few weeks going through all of this. It is heartbreaking to know that there are people who can be so evil and prey on such vulnerable people. I already felt like surrogacy agencies were basically highway robbery…but to actually be robbed of our money is just disgusting and shocking.
So…what does this mean for us? Between our savings account and some generous family members, we have mostly been able to recoup the amount needed for our last transfer. We are hoping to be able to move forward with this within the next couple of months! Stay tuned for this next adventure!
Our Path to Parenthood 