Surrogacy service provider indicted

Acharrayya Rupak, founder of Planet Hospital, a medical tourism company that had business addresses in San Diego, Calexico, and Calabasas, was indicted yesterday (June 22) for stealing more than $2 million from infertile clients seeking surrogacy services.

Rupak, of Calabasas, uses other names, including Rudy Rupak, Rudolph Matthews, and Kevin Thomas Rudolph Matthews.

Medical tourism companies arrange for foreign medical procedures such as hip replacements at cut-rate prices. In this case, Rupak promised to connect U.S. clients with egg donors and in vitro fertilization and surrogates in Mexico. In surrogacy services, a woman is paid to have an embryo transferred to her womb to bear a child for someone else.

According to the indictment, Rupak did not transfer the clients' funds to service providers, who would then demand funds from clients who had already paid.

To cover his tracks, according to the indictment, Rupak created phony websites and email addresses in the name of a clinic to give false excuses for why the services had not been provided. Eventually, the operation evolved into a Ponzi scheme, according to the indictment.