Surrogate escrow company accused of scamming $10 million out of families from Bay Area and beyond

A Bay Area couple is among hundreds across the country using surrogates to have babies. But they are now caught in a financial nightmare.

Cindy Bi told the I-Team, "We lost about $45,000 because our surrogate was only paid for one month."

They counted on an escrow company to hold money for the surrogate's fees and medical expenses, but the company has shut down and their money is gone. I-Team reporter Dan Noyes has been working with ABC News and our sister stations across the country on this report.

This is affecting hundreds of people across the country and even overseas. The allegation comes from court documents that state the owner of that escrow company used more than $10 million from parents hoping to have a baby, to fund her lavish lifestyle.

CINDY BI: "Come in?"

DAN NOYES: "Yeah, yeah."

Cindy Bi invited us into her room at Kaiser Santa Rosa to see her husband and their daughter, Mira, born just this past Monday using a surrogate who happens to be a nurse at the hospital. They call little "Mira" their "miracle."

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"We are so thankful to our surrogate and her family," Bi said. "We want to be in each other's life forever."

Ten years ago, Bi was working hard in tech and hadn't met the right person, so she froze her eggs, a step she calls "liberating." After she met Jorge Valdeiglesias, who works at a startup, they decided to have a child using a surrogate. They placed $60,000 into an escrow account that would pay the surrogate's fees and medical expenses.

CINDY BI: "Escrow account was the easiest part in my mind."

JORGE VALDEIGLESIAS: "That should be the least of our worries. When you have to think about who's going to carry your baby for nine months, how do you develop that trust or how do you get to pick someone? That should be the hardest part. And in this case, it's the opposite."

They used an escrow company out of Houston run by a woman who identified herself as "a former surrogate," Dominique Side.

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Side said in a promotional video, "I'm the owner of Surrogacy Escrow Account Management, better known as SEAM."

SEAM's slogan -- "We'll handle the money. You handle what matters."

In court filings, Dominique Side is accused of using hundreds of her clients' money in a fraudulent way: to fund a lavish lifestyle as a vegan influencer, as a rap artist and R&B singer, pouring more than $6 million into a recording facility called Vgn Bae Studios. She also spent her clients' money into real estate holdings, a vegan market in Houston and a clothing line. She made several appearances on social media as a "serial entrepreneur."

"Like, we rent cars, we have investment properties," Side said. "We do publishing for music and, yeah, there's a lot going on here."

The first sign of trouble for Bi and Valdeiglesias was just last month.

Bi told the I-Team, "Our surrogate got paid for May, and then for June, there was no payment."

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Bi immediately contacted SEAM and got a form email back. Side's message is also now on the company's answering machine: "My company and I have been noticed 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."

The FBI's Houston Division is trying to identify potential victims, asking them to fill out an online survey, answering questions like "Did you wire money?", "What is the total amount?" and "How much are you owed?"

Plaintiffs attorney Marianne Robak said, "They were used for Dominique's life: to fund her own lifestyle, to fund her businesses, to grow her businesses and then to essentially hide it from all the families."

Robak represents some three dozen former SEAM clients. In a hearing two weeks ago, Robak was able to freeze Dominique Side's assets. In her court filing, Robak cites a Facebook group called "SEAM Breach," which includes "more than 600 families" with "more than $10 million in escrow funds that appear to have vanished."

Neither Dominique Side nor a representative attended the hearing, but her music business partner and gospel singer Anthony Hall testified that Side reported herself to the FBI.

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MARIANNE ROBAK: "What did she tell you she had done?"

ANTHONY HALL: "That there was some mismanagement of funds."

ABC News and our sister stations across the country have been documenting how this case is growing, interviewing couple after couple who say they've lost money given to the escrow company for safe-keeping.

New York SEAM client, Laura Daniels said, "There just isn't the kind of regulation that we need to keep everyone safe."

From New York to North Carolina.

North Carolina SEAM client, Chriss Pratt said, "She should never be allowed to impact people like this."

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Atlanta SEAM client, Jenna Copeland asked, "What are our next steps? What are we going to do? Like where do we go from here?"

From Atlanta to Boise, Idaho.

Idaho SEAM client Shannon Willardson said, "How does someone, like, take advantage of a a community that is already so vulnerable, so emotionally, financially stretched already? Like, it's just -- it's sick."

Despite our combined efforts, we've been unable to reach Dominique Side. Our reporter went to one of her properties in New Orleans and spoke with Side's mother.

Caron Parks-Hinton said, "I know my daughter. I know how-type of person she is, and I know she wouldn't intentionally do anything to hurt anybody."

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One other note: about 40 French couples are also caught up in this controversy because surrogacy is illegal in France. We met Olivier Lantiez and Didier Larnac in Manteca, where they had a son by surrogate on July 3.

OLIVIER LANTIEZ: "I know that he was the most precious thing that could happen in my life. And I saw him for the first time, and I think it's the same.

DIDIER LARNAC: "The same."

They're staying at an Airbnb until they can get a passport for little Lucas. The history teacher and private nurse put $120,000 into a SEAM escrow account, and say they've lost $60,000 of it.

OLIVIER LANTIEZ: "I just want to have justice to be done for us and for everybody."

DAN NOYES: "What does justice look like for you?"

OLIVIER LANTIEZ: "She have to get back the money as possible to everybody. And I think she could apologize about what she's doing, apologize and maybe going to jail."

DAN NOYES: "You think that she deserves jail?"

OLIVIER LANTIEZ: "Of course."

You can hear more about this story on ABC News Nightline. If you have lost money to this company, contact the FBI. Dan Noyes would also like to hear from you at 1-888-40-I-Team.

Take a look at more stories by the ABC7 News I-Team.