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Dallas Morning News Turns Up The Heat On SurroGenesis & Tonya Collins

Tonya Collins courtesy of the Dallas Morning News
Reese Dunklin of the Dallas Morning News is continuing to beat the SurroGenesis drum.  Mr. Dunklin had an exhaustive article on the SurroGenesis scandal this past Sunday. Today he has an update on his Blog regarding the case that includes an interview with Debra Haworth:

“Many times I sat down and thought, OK, where exactly is this money coming from?” Haworth said. She figured at the time that Collins “must be signing up [new] parents to support her family. Never in a billion years would I think that she was just draining the trust accounts.”

Collins told would-be parents who used her surrogacy agency to help have children, SurroGenesis, to deposit as much as $100,000 into the accounts held by an escrow company she had formed and controlled, the Michael Charles Independent Financial Holdings Group.

That money was supposed to pay for surrogate mothers and egg donors, their medical bills and prescriptions, and other expenses. Collins had told two clients I interviewed that the escrow company was independently owned.

Haworth said she didn’t think it was a conflict for Collins to run both companies. But Haworth thought clients should have been told in advance about the connection and given an option to use a different escrow firm.

“To watch someone go and take that money is devastating,” said Haworth, who lost her SurroGenesis job after it closed in the days after the scandal first broke publicly.

Discussion

7 comments for “Dallas Morning News Turns Up The Heat On SurroGenesis & Tonya Collins”

  • JUSTICE

    Nice picture. Tonya’s ridiculous smile. It just makes sense that her fake flower, fake hair color, aluminum foil wrap are a reminder of her fake life, fake family, fake husband, fake school, fake house. All associated with Tonya must of been quite a punishment. What a relief it must be to be honest. It makes sense that those who know Tonya best are so honest and feel so emotional. As I was saying fake friends, fake wig, fake , well you can finish your own thoughts.

  • Susan and Shirley Jansen

    how come I never see comments posted on this site. Is there a site that we are missing. seem to recall a closed site for surrogenesis victims. How do we access it?

    • All comments, other than those that are marked as spam, are automatically posted. There is a forum board available to the victims. However, now that litigation has been commenced, it may not be in your best interests to post any information as it might become discoverable.

  • candace

    I am a victim of Tonya Collins\Surrogenesis Inc. It sickens me to see her smiling face, knowing that she is living the high life while her victims are trying to make it from day to day after losing so much of their money and all of their trust. This has been ongoing for nearly a year and I am ready to see some punishment for Tonya and reimbursement for her victims. I hope the media will continue to make this public until something is done because it can’t be soon enough.

    • Susan and Shirley Jansen

      Like Candace we are wondering what is happening on the legal actions against Tonya Collins and the MC holding company. There seems to be no new infomation available. Our baby was safely delivered on June 30 and we are delighted. We have managed to meet our obligations to our surrogate but wonder how the others are doing. I suppose it is very unlikely that there will be recovery of lost funds but it would give us some closure to know the ultimate outcome of this debacle.

  • scammed surrogate

    susan and shirley congrats on your baby and fullfilling your surro’s obligations..I have yet to hear anything on whats going on with tonya it seems like the whole case has just dropped off the face of the earth, i delievered right before the whole scam was exposed literally a week before and my ip’s are still trying to fullfill our contract its been extremeley hard as we both have suffered financially as u well you.. i hope to c justice one day and am still trying to grasp the fact of how anyone can do this and literally in this day and age just get away with it..congrats to you once again!! and enjoy that beautiful baby and the joy they bring!!

  • april lyons

    I am in shock over what I am just now learning about. I started my own small business last August, and became a personal assistant for Tonya. I worked for her with her family from August until January of this year. Tonya was never home, I would go to her house in Collyville every morning, make her 7 kids breakfast, take her older kids to vollyball practice or soccer practice, make them lunch, do their grocery shopping, do their laundry, etc. Tonya would always pay me cash on Friday, she would go to the bank and withdrawl about $4000.00 every week. I would see the receipt from the bank and think to myself ” man, how does she make that much money ? ” . She would pay me my earnings, about $500 a week, then she would go on a shopping spree , every week… buying her kids all new computers, bedroom sets, clothes, etc. She spent over $3000 in one day of shopping at target and other stores, like it was no big deal. She told me in January she couldn’t afford my services anymore and let me go. I was in shock because I could not believe she couldn’t ” afford ” to use me anymore, she was never there for her kids and I felt so sorry for them. She still owes me money. I bought gifts for christmas for all her children, and for her and her husband, and I didn’t even so much as get a thank you. I wasn’t a victim through surrogenesis, but I am just as disgusted as everyone else.

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