ST. LOUIS – Kwasi and Ashley Oyirifi’s path to parenthood hasn’t been a walk in the park.
“The first implantation in IVF was successful, but we lost our daughter 18 weeks into the pregnancy. We tried multiple implantations after that and that didn’t take hold,” said Kwasi Oyirifi.
The physical, emotional, and financial toll of failed IVF procedures led the Oyirifi’s to surrogacy.
“When I met her, we were talking to several people, but I just felt like this was a really good match and that’s proven to be true,” said Ashley Oyirifi.
In the surrogate contract, the Oyirifi’s agreed to fund a third-party escrow account run by Surrogacy Escrow Account Management (SEAM) in Houston, Texas. In January, they wired $65,000 to the account. The surrogate began receiving monthly payments and everything was fine.
But on June 14, they got this email from SEAM owner Dominique Side, which read, “due to legal action, I regret to inform you that all operations have been placed on hold. At this time, I am unable to provide further details regarding this matter.”
“That’s when we realized some surrogates weren’t getting paid and that our funds were unavailable,” said Ashley Oyirifi.
“We’ve just scraped the surface and we’ve already been able to find quite a bit of these transfers and these assets,” said Texas attorney Marianne Robak.
Her firm filed a lawsuit against SEAM, Dominique Side and her business partner Anthony Hall on June 21.
“For the past 28 days, my team and I have been working with a forensic accountant sending subpoenas out to every bank, every entity that we could trace assets to in order to compile that information and present it to the judge,” said Robak.
The updated lawsuit cites bank records alleging Dominique Side used more than $6.2 million of the intended parents’ escrow funds to finance her music studio. According to the petition, Side transferred more than $2.2 million to bankroll her music career. The complaint says the escrow money also funded Side’s lavish vacations, designer clothing, luxury vehicles and a membership at the exclusive club, SoHo House. The Oyirifi’s have joined the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“If we had seen those things prior to depositing our money, we probably would’ve chosen somewhere else,” said Ashley Oyirifi.
There is new hope families like the Oyirifi’s could eventually be made whole. On July 17, a Texas judge granted the plaintiffs a temporary injunction in the case.
“We were able to freeze over a million dollars’ worth of real estate, several hundred dollars of music equipment and inventory. At the end of this case, those assets can be liquidated and be turned into funds that can be part of a recovery for many of these families.”
“This is a really hard thing and a scary thing, but it doesn’t overshadow our excitement for our baby girl who’s coming,” said Ashley Oyirifi.
Contact 2’s Mike Colombo again attempted to question SEAM owner Dominique Side and again received an automated email reply that reads in part: “Under advice of counsel, I am not permitted to respond to any inquiries regarding the investigation.”
At the July 17th hearing, attorney Marianne Robak questioned Side’s business partner Anthony Hall.
“Mr. Hall testified that this last spring Dominique Side told him she had mismanaged these escrow funds. And shortly thereafter all of the assets in her entities were transferred into his name,” said Robak.
The FBI is investigating this case. Contact 2 will continue to bring you updates as we learn more.
