Surrogacy funds go missing for Utah family
SALT LAKE CITY - (KUTV, CNN) - A Utah family who used a surrogate to have their baby is out thousands of dollars.
They say the escrow company they were using failed them.
"It was a wild ride, lots of different emotions," said Ashley Trost, the mother of Monroe Trost who came into the world 3 months ago.
"I get really tearful because I didn't think I would ever get the opportunity to be a mom," Ashley said.
Ashley knew since she was 15 years old when she battled uterine cancer she wouldn't be able to carry. "Like our fertility doctor said we've got all the ingredients, we just don't have the oven," she said.
So with the help of their support system, Ashley and her husband, Conner Trost, saved up for a surrogate.
"To get her here was quite the journey, and I just think about love. There was a lot of love that went into getting her here," Conner said.
The Trost's used Surrogacy Escrow Account Management, or SEAM, a Texas-based company to manage the $80,000 in financial transactions during the surrogate process.
Two weeks ago, Ashley says I got an email from the owner of SEAM.
Saying due to legal action, all operations have been placed on hold, including payments and was unable to provide further details.
"I just got this pit in my stomach like and I knew right away, it clicked that something was off," Ashley said.
"Essentially the company's disappeared overnight. It's frustrating," Conner said.
Angela Haymond is the Trost's surrogate. A week ago, on the final bill reimbursement, she also got payment delay messages from SEAM.
"To take advantage of a vulnerable group of people who have scraped and saved every penny so that they can have a family just makes me absolutely sick," Angela Haymond said.
This is the fourth time Angela has been a surrogate and she has never seen this before. "Everyone just needs their money back, it's as simple as that," Angela said.
For the Trost's, Monroe is here. While they're out $5,400, they fear others who haven't delivered yet are out much more.
"It's vulnerable to come on here and just talk about it and I just want to make sure people are protected," Ashley said.
Requests for comment from SEAM were not returned on Tuesday.
