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| Suspect Mitsutoki Shigeta |
Interpol said it has launched a multinational investigation
into what Thailand has dubbed the "Baby Factory" case: a 24-year-old
Japanese businessman who has 16 surrogate babies and an alleged desire to
father hundreds more.
Police raided a Bangkok condominium earlier this month
and found nine babies and nine nannies living in a few unfurnished rooms filled
with baby bottles, bouncy chairs, play pens and diapers. They have since
identified Mitsutoki Shigeta as the father of those babies — and seven others, AP reports.
"What
I can tell you so far is that I've never seen a case like this,"
Thailand's Interpol director, police Maj. Gen. Apichart Suribunya, said Friday.
"We are trying to understand what kind of person makes this many
babies."
Apichart said that regional Interpol offices in Japan,
Cambodia, Hong Kong and India have been asked to probe Shigeta's background,
beginning last week. Police say he appears to have registered businesses or
apartments in those countries and has frequently traveled there.
"We are looking into two motives. One is human
trafficking and the other is exploitation of children," said police Lt.
Gen. Kokiat Wongvorachart, Thailand's lead investigator in the case. He said
Shigeta made 41 trips to Thailand since 2010. On many occasions he traveled to
nearby Cambodia, where he brought four of his babies.
Shigeta has not been charged with any crime. He is
trying to get his children back — the 12 in Thailand are being cared for by
social services — and he has proven through DNA samples sent from Japan that he
is their biological father. He quickly left Thailand after the Aug. 5 raid on
the condominium and has said through a lawyer that he simply wanted a large
family and has the means to support it.
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In this
Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014 photo, Thai police display pictures of surrogate babies
born to a Japanese man who is at the center of a surrogacy scandal during a
press conference at the police headquarters in Chonburi, Thailand. (AP
Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
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Kokiat said Shigeta hired 11 Thai surrogate mothers to
carry his children, including four sets of twins. Police have not determined
the biological mothers, Kokiat said.
The founder of a multinational fertility clinic that
provided Shigeta with two surrogate mothers said she warned Interpol about him
even before the first baby was born in June 2013.
"As soon as they got pregnant, he requested more.
He said he wanted 10 to 15 babies a year, and that he wanted to continue the
baby-making process until he's dead," said Mariam Kukunashvili, founder of
the New Life clinic, which is based in Thailand and six other countries. He also
inquired about equipment to freeze his sperm to have sufficient supply when
he's older, she said in a telephone interview from Mexico.
As for Shigeta's motives, Kukunashvili said he told
the clinic's manager that "he wanted to win elections and could use his
big family for voting," and that "the best thing I can do for the
world is to leave many children." Kukunashvili declined The Associated
Press' request to talk to the clinic manager.
Kukunashvili, who is based at the company's
headquarters in the country of Georgia, said she never met Shigeta but received
reports from her Thai staff.
She said that in April 2013, she sent faxes in English
and French to Interpol's head office in Lyon, France, and an email through the
agency's website, but they went unanswered. Apichart of Interpol in Thailand
said the local office never saw the warnings. An Interpol spokesman in Lyon did
not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Kukunashvili also sent Shigeta an email to express
suspicion, and attorney Ratpratan Tulatorn responded on his behalf in an Aug.
31, 2013, email that the clinic owner provided to the AP.
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In this
Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014 photo, Thai police Maj. Gen. Apichart Suribunya talks
to reporters during a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Sakchai
Lalit)
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The attorney said Shigeta was involved in "no
dishonesty, no illegal activities." He said his client hoped to keep using
New Life, but the company then stopped working with him.
Shigeta's activities drew no attention until early
this month, when an Australian couple was accused of abandoning a baby with his
Thai surrogate mother — but taking his twin sister — after learning the boy had
Down syndrome. Though the couple disputes the allegation, the case prompted a
crackdown by Thai authorities on what had been a largely unregulated industry.
After the Australian case emerged, police received a
tip that prompted the raid on Shigeta's Bangkok apartment.
Ratpratan, the lawyer, appeared during the raid to
insist that Shigeta had done nothing wrong.
"These are legal babies, they all have birth
certificates," Ratpratan told Thailand's Channel 3 television station.
"There are assets purchased under these babies' names. There are savings
accounts for these babies, and investments. If he were to sell these babies,
why would he give them these benefits?"
Ratpratan
is no longer Shigeta's lawyer, and his replacement has not responded to
requests for comment. Shigeta's current whereabouts are unknown.
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