Surrogacy consultant steals thousands from clients wanting to be parents, feds in CA say
A consultant accused of “selfishly” exploiting people looking to become parents through surrogacy has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, California officials said.
Lillian Arielle Markowitz, 40, of Portland, Oregon, owned three San Diego businesses “through which she marketed herself as a surrogacy consultant to those seeking to realize their dreams of becoming surrogate parents,” federal prosecutors said.
However, when she started struggling financially, Markowitz “devised a scheme to steal money from her surrogacy clients,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said in a Jan. 23 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to her attorney Jan. 24 and was awaiting a response.
Markowitz admitted to taking money out of the escrow accounts of two couples without them knowing or agreeing, according to prosecutors. The accounts held money for surrogacy costs, prosecutors said.
Markowitz also admitted to “falsely promising” nine other clients that she’d put their money into a surrogacy escrow account, prosecutors said. Instead, she deposited it in a business checking account and used it for “general business expenses, expenses related to other clients’ surrogacy journeys, and her personal expenses,” according to prosecutors.
In the news release, U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said “the path to parenthood through surrogacy can be fraught with emotional and financial challenges,” and Markowitz “selfishly exploited vulnerable clients who were striving to fulfill their dream of becoming parents.”
Markowitz is set to be sentenced in April. She faces 20 years in prison, per the release.
She’s agreed to pay at least $389,000 in restitution to her clients, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Surrogacy consultant steals thousands from clients wanting to be parents, feds in CA say."
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