FAIR OAKS, Calif. — A Fair Oaks couple hoping for a baby paid a company $45,000 meant to pay their surrogate. Now, that money is gone and the company is being investigated by the FBI.
For seven years, Christopher and Katelyn Kettmann were a family of three with their dog Theo, but the goal was to expand their family and give Theo a human sibling. Katelyn always knew the journey to becoming a parent would be difficult.
"I have severe endometriosis. I had to have a full hysterectomy. From the very beginning, he's been incredible of just, 'Okay, we'll figure it out. Whatever we need to do to figure out how we're going to have a family, we'll figure it out together,'" she said.
With Katelyn as a wedding photographer and Christopher working in tech, the couple figured adoption would be the most cost-effective way to expand their family. Their adoption journey didn't go very far.
"You're essentially denied, not because of anything on our side, but because we wanted an infant three or younger and they said, 'If you can take a seven year old, you can have a seven year old right now,' and we're like, we're not prepared for that," said Christopher.
The couple started to look into surrogacy, making them question if having a baby would ever happen for them. They went through the IVF process in May 2023. Through that process, they signed a contract with Surrogacy Escrow Account Management, or SEAM, based out of Houston. SEAM would make payments to the woman carrying their baby.
"Everything that we read about and all the testimonials were excellent," said Christopher.
The Kettmanns put $45,000 into the escrow account for SEAM. Then, in June, the couple started seeing problems when the company notified them of payment issues.
"There are some delays in payments. It's going to take a few extra days. Bear with us ... we're looking into a bank issue," Christopher said.
The couple got another message after that notice.
"On June 14 is when we got the kind of bombshell if you will. That bombshell was we have ceased all operations, that our bank accounts are frozen because of an investigation," Christopher recalled.
The FBI's Houston Division is investigating SEAM and looking for more couples like the Kettmanns, believing there may be hundreds.
Lori Hood, a Houston-based attorney, is representing one of those couples.
"We filed a lawsuit in Harris County asking the court to give us emergency relief so we can unfreeze bank accounts," said Hood.
Hood's clients are in the process of their surrogacy pregnancy and haven't been able to access $60,000 from their SEAM account to pay their surrogate. Hood is actively looking for more couples, regardless of location, to be part of her ongoing lawsuit against SEAM. She encourages couples impacted by this to reach out to her office at Shackelford Law.
"It's just absolutely abhorrent what these people have done to these parents and to these surrogates," Hood said.
The FBI would not do an interview with ABC10, but through Hood's investigation, she says she was able to trace a portion of where the money was spent.
"The company bought at least 42 pieces of real property in and around Houston, Texas," Hood said.
ABC10 reached out to SEAM and the company's owner, Dominique Side, set up an automated response:
"My sincerest apologies for the non-responsiveness. My company and I have been noticed that we are subject to an active investigation by federal authorities. Under advice of counsel, I am not permitted to respond to any inquiries regarding the investigation. Please be kindly advised that the investigation involves only me, as an individual, and SEAM, as a single-member entity."
"We're going to be out $45,000 and there's no answers," said Christopher.
The Kettmanns say they're unable to afford an attorney at this time and don't think they'll ever get their money back as they are trying to re-coup their funds with the help of strangers to pay their surrogate.
"We are expecting a baby boy and he is due in October," said Katelyn.
The couple says no matter how this pans out, it'll all be worth it.
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