In the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia, there's a lavish nine-bedroom mansion surrounded by palm trees.

It's fronted in pale faux stone. It has two turrets on either side of the front door.

Back in May, police showed up outside of this very fancy home.

Right away, something seemed unusual.

They might have noticed the surveillance cameras.

They were outside the house and the warning that it was protected by armed security guards.

The reason police were there, an L. had called authorities after treating a two-month-old

baby with head injuries that suggested child abuse.

Inside, they found 15 children, none of them older than three years old, all with buzzed

haircuts under the care of six nannies.

Even more surprising, investigators learned that all of the children belonged to the same couple,

and that many of them had been born through surrogacy.

My colleague Catherine Long has been following the case.

Now, federal authorities are investigating whether this couple may have been selling the children that they created through surrogacy.

That's according to interviews that we've done with surrogates who carry some of the children, who've spoken with federal agents in recent weeks.

The FBI declined to comment. The couple maintains that nothing they've done is against the law.

The story has put the U.S. surrogacy industry on edge, an industry that is worth billions of dollars.

Surrogacy industry professionals we've spoken to say this case is the number one topic of

conversation within the industry currently. And it has the potential to upend some of the

ways that the surrogacy industry has operated. Wow. This seems like it's kind of opening up a

Pandora's box here. That's right. Wow. This seems like it's kind of opening up a Pandora's box here. That's right. Yeah.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza.

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