My law partner, Dean Masserman, who has been pursuing Rosa Balcazar and B Coming Agency, emailed me additional background so as to provide more context for today’s Los Angeles Times article:

“I appreciate the attention that the L.A. Times has brought to this scandal. Although I would much prefer the U.S. Attorney for the central district, Thomas O’Brien, to file multiple counts of wire fraud, insurance fraud, check kiting, fraudulent credit card use, extortion, and theft etc. The bite of the Federal prosecutor’s office and the federal prison system is more vicious than the state’s. She could easily face 20 years in prison.

As for more information, much was left out of the L.A, Times article given their space constraints. The six couples from Spain wired over $500,000.00 to at least for different bank accounts in the name of B-Coming or Rosa Balcazar. Not a single of those couples had a surrogate who even got pregnant, let alone had a child.The claim by Ms. Balcazar in the article that she provided a service for which she should be paid is laughable. Aside from the point you make regarding earned fees as opposed to monies held in trust, my clients would dispute she even earned those alleged fees because she did not actually provide them any services. She shopped the same surrogate to different couples, she charged them for egg donors and appurtenant medical expenses when they never sought ova donation in the first place. She lied about the medical history of the surrogates and failed to properly screen them. As a result, surrogates would skip doctor appointments, fail medical screenings or simply disappear. That would be followed by a promise from Ms. Balcazar to the couple that she would find them another surrogate, only to have the same thing happen again, or she would simply fail to follow up at all, keeping all of their funds and not refunding a dime.

On numerous occasions Ms. Balcazar failed to make payments to physicians, clinics and surrogates, even though she was supposedly holding that money in trust on behalf of the intended parents. On other occasions she would grossly overcharge the clients for services and lie to them. In one instance, the clinic charges $2,500.00 for a service but Ms. Balcazar told the coupe the charge was $29,500.00 resulting in an overcharge of roughly $27,000.00 At other times she would simply keep the money and not pay at all. Dr. Sahakian from Pacific Fertility Center, was a doctor who provided services in a couple of the cases and claims that B-Coming owes him more than $30,000.00 and that despite numerous promises, Ms. Balcazar has never paid him. He no longer works with B-Coming and in a letter dated 10/21/08 stated “My experience with her (Rosa) has been very bad. She has repeatedly deceived multiple patients and in no simpler terms, robbed them. She has done the same with me.” He went on to state that he and his staff are prepared to “testify in court against Mrs. Balcazar for the fraud she has committed and continues to commit, and help put an end to her blatant abuse of patient’s trust and money.” This is just one physican and there are many others.

In yet another case with a couple from Spain, not handled by our office, a surrogate got pregnant with twins. In the middle of the pregnancy B-Coming stopped making payments to the surrogate mother who understandably panicked. It turns out that one of the twins also had severe medical problems that required a long, intensive and expensive hospital stay after birth. The insurance company, Health Net, claims that not only did B-Coming cease making the medical insurance payments on the policy that was procured to cover the costs of the pregnancy and birth, but that B-Coming had lied to procure the policy in the first place, claiming the surrogate was an employee of B-Coming. Health Net has now filed suit alleging damages in excess of $500,000.00, the surrogate is out a portion of her reimbursement for pain and suffering, is laden with debts and bills related to the pregnancy and birthand the Spanish couple is also out hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on overcharges, medical bills, and expenses related to having to remain in this country for many months after the birth. If that was not horrific enough, once Health Net stopped paying, the Intended Mother was told by Children’s Hospital that her child was being discharged despite the fact she was very ill, unstable, disabled and unable to make the flight back to Spain without a private nurse. For a period of time the intended mother was staying in a shelter because she could no longer afford to stay in a hotel, while she remained by her new born child’s side. The child is currently in Spain thanks only to the dedication of some very thoughtful people, and is receiving proper medical care, but will likely have lifelong disabilities.

In yet another case, the couple from North Carolina, just before the transfer of embryos was to take place, the couple received a call from Rosa stating that the surrogate would only agree to go forward if they agreed to pay her another $60,000.00. In other words they were extorted. Thankfully, the Kuks decided not to go forward and demanded the return of their funds. Did they get a dime back? Not as of yet.

The remaining couples from Spain all have similarly tragic stories of failed surrogates, demands for more money, improper accounting, lost money and shattered dreams. Rosa Balcazar spoke their language, traveled to their country, shared meals with them, took their life savings, and then stole everything from them. She has single handedly ruined lives, costs honest people and business to collectively lose in excess of one million dollars, and stained an otherwise reputable industry. This is not a systemic industry problem. These are the acts of a few criminals who have preyed upon people at their most vulnerable moments. Somebody with the power to stop her must stand up. Thomas O’Brien would be my first choice. Californa Attorney General Jerry Brown. Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley. Somebody must help these people because civil judgments mean nothing to Rosa Balcazar or the victims. A civil action will only cause the victims to incur more costs, the attorneys to lose more money, and in the end they will be left holding a judgment that is as worthless as the paper it is printed on. Whatever money Rosa has not spent is well hidden and I doubt she has even a fraction of what she has stolen left. The criminal courts have the power to seize her assets, freeze her bank accounts and order restitution to the victims.”

This is unacceptable and law enforcement should be held to account for their failure to intervene.

Related Posts:

1. BC BS
2. The Depravity of B Coming & Rosa Balcazar
3. Balcazar & B-Coming Out Of Business?
4. Rosa Balcazar Finally In The Media’s Crosshairs
5. Sow The Wind, Reap The Whirlwind
6. Tonya Collins There Is Someone I Want You To Meet
7. Los Angeles Times 3 – FBI 0
8. Crossing Paths With Dr. Frankenstein
9. PBS Investigates Surrogacy Scams
10. Lack Of Sperm & Egg Donors Forcing British Citizens To Look Elsewhere