(WSJ) – A Chinese-born couple who paid a nationwide web of surrogates to bear close to two dozen children for them were arrested Tuesday in what Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called an “unprecedented case of child abuse.”

Hochman alleged that Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan conspired to commit child abuse by authorizing nannies caring for 14 babies and toddlers in the couple’s Arcadia, Calif., mansion to beat and physically punish the children, sometimes directing the abuse. Xuan was also charged with one count of child abuse, and both he and Zhang were additionally charged with dissuading witnesses. (Read More)