Cancun GVs

Music

00:00

COWAN: Cancun on Mexico's Gulf coast is a globally renowned tourist town. You come here for the sun, the beaches, the resorts and the bars. Somewhere between 3 and 4 million head here every year, swamping the half million or so residents. Most everyone comes to party,

00:13

Women on sightseeing cruise

and it's hard not to have fun - even if you're here for your part in the very serious business of surrogacy.

00:36

Among the tourists on this sightseeing cruise are women from poorer parts of Mexico and Central and South America, glimpsing a high life they may have never known.

00:56

MARISOL MORALES: "Some of them have never been out of their home towns, some of them have never been out of the village ever. So it's an exciting experience for them and they love it and they know that there's more out there than they ever imagined".

01:08

COWAN: If all goes well over the months ahead, they'll not only have their sun-kissed memories of a resort city

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Women with turtle

and the day trips to Cancun's less spoiled corners, they'll also have a pay cheque they could never have imagined at home -- more than $10,000 for delivering a child to couples from America, Europe - even Australia.

01:28

MARISOL MORALES: "I have some girls that want to do this because they want to put up a little store in their village.

01:48

Marisol

I have another girl who wants to learn how to cut hair because she wants to put a little beauty salon in her village. I have a girl who wishes to go to university".

01:52

Adriana

ADRIANA RINCON: "All my life, since I was a little girl, I liked to help people. Also I'm fascinated by children, they enchant me, I love them.

02:00

Lighthouse/ Tourists walk to lighthouse

If there's a couple or a family that can give a good home to a baby and who can make that baby happy, economically, emotionally, in all aspects, it's very interesting to be part of this new experience".

02:11

Adriana and others at surrogacy house

Music

02:09

COWAN: Adriana Rincon is 32, a single mother from Colombia who's hoping her pregnancy will transform her life.

02:33

ADRIANA RINCON: "My idea is to establish a business -

02:46

Adriana

something small, something that could grow. A business where my mum can feel stable and supported, and she can look after our home and my sisters".

02:52

Surrogacy house

COWAN: Adriana's contracted to a US based baby broker called Planet Hospital that's set up shop in Cancun and that manages this share house for its surrogates.

03:06

MARISOL MORALES: [Surrogacy House Mother] "Sometimes they have to come out here because they've chosen to be away from their abusive ex-husband, ex-boyfriend or significant other.

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Sometimes they want to be away from their family members because they don't accept what they're doing, because of political views or religion.

03:29

Marisol. Super:
Marisol Morales
Surrogacy House Manager

Sometimes their parents don't accept or don't agree and they do, they have the heart and the soul to do this and they think it's worth the fact - leave all of it behind, better themselves and help the family".

03:36

Women walk along beach with children

03:47

COWAN: Adriana's been matched to an Argentinean client. She'll be inseminated with donor sperm and when she delivers, she's told she'll be paid thirteen and a half thousand dollars.

03:52

ADRIANA RINCON: "Basically this is why I'm doing it - to be able to help them directly.

04:04

Adriana

Everything I'm doing right now is for my family, it's for them".

04:13

San Francisco GVs

Music

04:19

COWAN: Planet Hospital pitches itself in the massive neighbouring market of the United States as an affordable alternative to local surrogacy.

04:31

It also targets prospective parents, particularly gay couples and singles who are prohibited from participating in commercial surrogacy programs offered by countries like India.

04:41

Massimo and partner at café

In San Francisco, Massimo de Lucia is about to sign up.

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "I'm gay so I'm not going to be able to have a baby in the natural way

04:54

Massimo

and I wanted to have it with my partner and wanted to, you know, have the baby and you know, do it together and the only way to do it is through surrogacy".

05:05

Massimo and partner at café

COWAN: The couple have done their research. Mexico fits Massimo's partner's heritage and the cost of surrogacy south of the border suits as well.

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "It's cheaper than the US. It's probably half the price that you would pay in the US so that's definitely an incentive.

05:14

San Francisco trolley car

My dad passed away two years ago and he left me actually some money.

05:34

For me, it was just the best way to use that money, to have a kid. I'm sure he would be very happy with that".

05:40

Marisol greets Massimo at surrogacy house

05:46

COWAN: Massimo's flown down to Cancun to give the place a final once over before he commits.

05:57

Marisol introduces women

Surrogacy house manager, Marisol Morales, has assembled Adriana and some of the other surrogates to field Massimo's concerns.

06:11

Massimo talks with women

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "This is my most important question. If you know you are doing it for a gay couple, does that disturb you?

SURROGATE #1: "It is irrelevant".

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SURROGATE #2: "I'm sure the baby will have a good home, and be happy".

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "My biggest concern was being scammed.

06:28

Massimo. Super:
Massimo De Lucia
Client

Now it's making sure that Planet Hospital knows what to do here in Mexico. I know that they've done it in other parts of the world but they've never done it here, so that's the bit that concerns me most. But she sounded trustworthy. It makes me feel better".

06:45

Rudy

RUDY RUPAK: "Well for me Planet Hospital's a bit of a love story".

07:01

Rudy in office at computer

COWAN: Surrogacy entrepreneur Rudy Rupak is the brains behind Planet Hospital.

07:04

Rudy

RUDY RUPAK: "Ah yes I've got to say I'm the uncle to about 750 kids around the globe and it's a great feeling.

07:11

Women at Planet Hospital

Music

07:17

RUDY RUPAK: To grow a company that brings joy to people's lives, is almost as close to being Walt Disney I'll ever get".

07:20

Inside Planet Hospital

COWAN: Rudy Rupak's background is in software development, but from a base in North America, he's set up an enterprise that matches childless couples with egg donors and surrogates. And the way he tells it, it's state of the art, reliable, and going gangbusters.

RUDY RUPAK: [Founder & CEO of Planet Hospital] "A majority of our clients do come from the US and Canada.

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Rudy. Super:
Rudy Rupak
Founder & CEO, Planet Hospital

A growing number of clients are coming from Australia and New Zealand. We're seeing a lot of European countries also looking for surrogacy.

07:55

Inside Planet Hospital

Anywhere there is infertility, anywhere there is empowered gay people,

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Rudy

these are the people that are contacting us and saying, help us".

08:11

IVF Lab

COWAN: The IVF, conception and implantation process takes place in a fertility clinic in Cancun

08:15

Women on street

but local laws prohibiting surrogate birth mean when the women are due to deliver, they're sent two states away to Tabasco, the only place in Mexico where loop holes in the law mean surrogacy for profit is effectively legal.

08:25

Rudy

RUDY RUPAK: "The parents will come to Tabasco to pick up their babies - or baby - and at that point there is a US embassy there or an Australian embassy in Mexico City which is an hour and a half flight away and within two or three weeks they're able to have the baby and go home".

08:42

Massimo talking with women at surrogacy house

COWAN: So far Massimo de Lucia has paid two thousand dollars to make a sperm deposit.

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "I was thinking that my dream may come true - anytime soon".

09:04

Adriana in bedroom

COWAN: Despite some earlier nerves, Adriana Rincon is feeling pretty positive about her pregnancy.

09:14

ADRIANA RINCON: "I said to myself this will be very difficult, because of so many hormones -

09:22

Adriana

but in reality, it wasn't as bad as I imagined".

09:28

Adriana on balcony making phone call

COWAN: Being away from home, her own family and her daughter is an emotional wrench. Having a child only to surrender it at birth is also a dramatic experience. Adriana's hoping it'll be worth it.

09:37

Music

09:50

Chicago GVs

Music

10:04

Catherine

CATHERINE MOSCARELLO: "Planet Hospital itself seemed to be a very well-known established organisation, but I can't tell you one area of that business that was consistently run above board - not one".

10:15

Chicago GVs

Music

10:34

Catherine at home on laptop

COWAN: Catherine Moscarello lives in Chicago. By now she should be raising the child she'd hoped to have via surrogacy. Catherine engaged Planet Hospital and very soon was matched with an apparently healthy surrogate who'd already had a son.

10:41

CATHERINE MOSCARELLO: "We were told she was a 22 year old single mum and she had a little boy. That's all we were told. She was barely 18.

Catherine. Super:
Catherine Moscarello
Former employee & client, Planet Hospital

Her son was not a boy, he was a baby. He was less than 9 months old and he had breastfed for six, at least six of those nine months. In addition, she had uterine cysts that they did a procedure to remove the day before our transfer. I feel like we wasted two embryos. Transferred, got pregnant, she miscarried.

11:07

Catherine on balcony in snow

Music

11:31

CATHERINE MOSCARELLO: She was not qualified to be a surrogate. She should never have passed screening".

11:35

COWAN: What makes Catherine Moscarello's discoveries so explosive is that she's not simply an aggrieved client of Planet Hospital, she's a former employee. Both Catherine and her lawyer husband worked for Planet Hospital in part payment for their surrogacy deal. It wouldn't be long before she discovered there was a pattern of deception.

11:42

Intending parents - or IP's - were being duped left, right and centre.

CATHERINE MOSCARELLO: Planet Hospital was run like a Ponzi scheme.

12:08

Catherine

They priced the services based on how desperate they can figure the IP is. Get the stage one fees in their hands. The stage one fees are basically -- should be used for the semen sample, for the egg retrieval - for the egg donor, egg retrieval, IVF, embryo transfer, beginning surrogate. Stage 2 fees start at the heartbeat. Well none of that ever gets done.

12:18

[shot continuous]

So if they're lucky they leave their semen sample. I've got, I'm sitting with the three petition creditors for instance, $37,000 was paid, he never even left a semen sample and the money's gone. And Rupak it's stall.... stall, stall, stall.

12:47

Randy at computer

It's not to Rupak's benefit to take.... to get to stage two or stage three. They  just put you off and put you off and put you off".

13:11

Indian street

COWAN: Foreign Correspondent has obtained evidence that Planet Hospital had form, going all the way back to its original operation in India - shut down when it was besieged by angry clients and associated clinics that had been dudded.

13:20

CATHERINE MOSCARELLO: "In India you need an exit visa and you don't get the exit visa until your clinic signs off that your debts are paid.

13:38

Catherine

I can't tell you the number of IPs I've just recently met that  had to come out of their own pocket, had to hire their own attorneys, because Rupak just left them there -- just left them there".

13:44

Stormy, rainy Cancun

Music

13:56

Cowan walks to entry of surrogacy house

COWAN: It wouldn't take long for the same result in Cancun.

14:10

Cowan to camera

So we've come back to the house where the surrogate women were living. It's all locked up. The neighbours are saying they noticed strange goings on here, lots of women coming and going, but they were too concerned about their own safety to get involved.

14:17

So where had everyone gone? What had happened to the pregnancies under way when we left? The surrogates, the clients and the money? And where were the operators of Planet Hospital?

14:30

Cowan with Marisol on street

We soon learn that Marisol Morales, the manager of the surrogacy house, is living nearby. When we find her, she declares herself a victim as well.

14:44

MARISOL MORALES: "I tried to email him. I tried to contact him

14:55

Marisol. Super:
Marisol Morales
Surrogacy House Manager

and tell him -- and demand that he is honest and comes forward and returns that money. And all he does is ignore my calls".

14:58

COWAN: She claims Planet Hospital's Rudy Rupak owes her $18,000 and that she's doing her best to care for some of the surrogates he's abandoned.

15:04

MARISOL MORALES: "I want him to be punished because this is not the first time he's done something like this - come into a foreign country, leaving pregnant women and unpaid bills. This is the third time. He's done it in India and there's lawsuits against him - he's done it in Panama. Now he's done it in Mexico. I think he's just a cheater. He is a con-artist. He is very loveable and sweet and pretends to be human. He's not, he's evil".

15:16

Mexico City GVs

Music

15:38

Adriana walking on street

COWAN: It takes us a little longer to track down surrogate Adriana Rincon.

15:57

ADRIANA RINCON: "Being a surrogate mother doesn't transform us into a receptacle, like a microwave oven,

16:08

Adriana

as though we are just a carrier. We also have feelings".

16:15

Adriana walking on street/Into rooming house

COWAN: Adriana had hoped to transform her life with the money she'd earn from delivering a baby, but now she's living in a cramped single room in Mexico City, dealing with the miscarriage at four months - of twins.

16:20

Adriana

ADRIANA RINCON: "It was hard... because I practically gave birth, with the medications they gave me to expel them. It was very long. I had contractions, I was in a lot of pain, all alone... in the middle of the night surrounded by many people, but alone in a bathroom in the house. Just waiting for them to come out. It's very sad.

16:42

You start loving them because they are inside you. It's hard".

17:33

Adriana walking on street

COWAN: In her native Colombia, Adriana had a career as a social worker, but as an illegal immigrant in Mexico finding any kind of work is almost impossible. Of the thirteen and a half thousand dollars she was expecting, she's received just eight hundred. She doesn't know where her next meal is coming from.

14:42

Adriana trying to find work

ADRIANA RINCON: "They don't say it to your face - but they make you feel like you're no longer any use to them... so go".

18:08

Massimo

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "Well it turned out to be a nightmare, truly".

18:22

ROWAN: Back in San Francisco, Massimo de Lucia has lost twenty two and a half thousand dollars.

18:26

Cancun clinic

Three embryos were produced, but they're locked away in a Cancun clinic - the clinic refusing to release them unless Massimo pays another five thousand dollars to cover some of Planet Hospital's unpaid bills.

MASSIMO DE LUCIA: "He cheated too many people.

18:33

Massimo. Super:
Massimo De Lucia
Client

You know, one thing is being cheated when you're doing a business transaction, but a very different thing is when you, you know, you're playing with people's feelings and dreams and you know it's really hard for a gay couple to have a kid, and going through the surrogacy is a mess - and you're playing with that".

18:50

LA GVs

Music

19:07

Cowan driving to Rupak's office

COWAN: Rudy Rupak lives among celebrities and the well-to-do, in a gated community outside Los Angeles. This office is where he cooks up his schemes.

19:23

RUDY RUPAK: [at a meeting] "There is a hospital in Medellin, Colombia.

19:36

Rudy in meeting

Daryl witnessed it. You walk in with Parkinson's, like with the shakes - you walk out without Parkinson's. Like, without the shakes".

19:40

MAN AT MEETING: "That could be huge. You could get a huge inflow of clients from that".

19:49

RUDY RUPAK: "It's not allowed in the States".

19:52

Rudy interview. Super:
Rudy Rupak
Founder & CEO, Planet Hospital

[to COWAN] "I'm not a thief, I'm not a con-artist. I made a very bad mistake. I made some bad judgement calls, yes".

19:5

COWAN: When we finally sit down with Rudy Rupak to discuss the catalogue of complaints and accusations against him, we get plenty of mea culpa but very few straight answers.

20:01

RUDY RUPAK: "It was basically one disaster after another and I take 100% blame for what happened. We were faced with very, you know, major problems one after the other, both internally and abroad".

20:14

COWAN: "Before you even came to Mexico though, all of these things had happened in a similar way in India".

RUDY RUPAK: "Yes".

COWAN: "You're the common element here".

20:30

RUDY RUPAK: "I... yes, yes I agree. I should have learned from what I did in India and try to prevent that from happening in Mexico. I didn't. I got too ambitious about Mexico. I really wanted to work. I didn't... I guess I just didn't do my diligence as well as I should have and I failed in that regard".

20:37

Rudy in meeting

COWAN: When it comes to the question of money, Rupak appears to conjure a scapegoat out of thin air - a crooked Chief Financial Officer.

20:57

Rudy interview

"People paid you fees - where's the money gone?"

21:06

RUDY RUPAK: "Well ah... one of the biggest challenges we had is that we had a rather unethical CFO who is currently incarcerated and ah....".

21:09

COWAN: "Who is that?"

RUDY RUPAK: "Um... um..."

COWAN: We couldn't find any evidence the CFO ever existed.

21:21

GFX. O'lay photos. Planet Hospital

Planet Hospital duped and fleeced clients, conscripted inappropriate surrogates who couldn't carry children, abandoned surrogates and even tried to sell one client's eggs to another.

21:28

Cowan with Rudy

Foreign Correspondent has evidence that Planet Hospital tried to cover that up and when we confront Rudy Rupak with that evidence, at first he denies it ever happened.

21:42

RUDY RUPAK: "Falsifying egg reports? Absolutely not, absolutely not. Okay, I mean..."

COWAN: "It's there in black and white".

21:55

RUDY RUPAK: "It's falsified in black and white. It's falsified in black and white".

22:01

COWAN: He then concedes the evidence is authentic.

22:07

Rudy with Cowan

RUDY RUPAK: "I... yep I'm sorry I misspoke to you earlier about this. It was not my recollection as to how it went, really".

COWAN: "This cannot be the first time you've realised what went on there. You knew what happened at the time".

RUDY RUPAK: "This is probably the first time we did this egg splitting idea. It's absolutely the first time we did that and that was the only time we did that at this... ever in the history of our company. You know it was ah.... I mean, I felt it was a win-win for both parties".

22:12

COWAN: "When clients talk about negative experiences they've had with Planet Hospital, you threaten them with legal action, you launch smear campaigns, you shame them, you publish their confidential information on line".

22:44

RUDY RUPAK: "Yes, absolutely. If they're attacking me, I will attack back".

22:56

Catherine

CATHERINE MOSCARELLO: "Either he's a thief or he's grossly negligent, because he knows he doesn't manage businesses well. He knows he's going to lose these people's money. He knows his history and that it repeats, like clockwork. It doesn't, it doesn't make me feel any better. I for one believe he's a thief.

23:00

Rudy in meeting

Everything he does is calculated to preserve his interest, and if other people are injured or harmed or scarred, not a big deal. No interest".

23:20

Cowan walks in Mexico

Music

23:36

COWAN: Disgruntled clients, led by former employee Catherine Moscarello, are now forcing Rudy Rupak into bankruptcy and have effectively stopped him from trading. The FBI has launched a criminal investigation. What's clear

23:44

Cowan to camera on street in Mexico

is while one culprit's been exposed, there will always be another rogue operator, new sets of parents desperate to have children, and a willing supply of surrogates trying to better their own lives. And when this pattern plays out around the world in developing countries with next to no regulation, there are very few winners.

24:02

Adriana into church

Music

24:23

COWAN: Adriana Rincon is still trapped in Mexico, away from her daughter and facing an uncertain future. But she's determined to overcome her ordeal.

24:33

ADRIANA RINCON: "I'm going to keep fighting. I need to be positive - because otherwise I'll sink into myself.

24:50

Adriana

And that'll be the end. I'll be nothing. And I don't want that".

25:09

Inside church

Music

25:16

Credits

Reporter: Jane Cowan
Producers: Bronwen Reed, Dee Porter, Mavourneen Dineen
Camera: Robert Hill ACS
Editor: Nicholas Brenner

25:25