She Got Rich Stealing Moms’ Dreams

Hoan Nguyen dreamed of becoming a mom. But she had fertility issues, and so Nguyen began scouting for a surrogate from her Arizona home. She landed on a website called Miracles and Miracles Surrogacy. Nguyen only found out later that it was a fraudulent business run by a conniving mom.

It was May 2011 and the hopeful parent thought she found the perfect surrogate named “Amy.” A phone conversation with the Miracles Inc. owner had Nguyen acting fast because “Amy,” she was told, was “in high demand.” Nguyen sent two payments totaling $19,500 and signed some papers to make it official. But Hoan Nguyen was baited and bilked. There was no “Amy” and the money she signed off to deliver a baby someday was as good as gone.

For four years, Allison Layton, 38, took Nguyen and more than 40 other would-be moms and dads for their hard earned money to fund her lux lifestyle and finance a second wedding in Idaho. She pleaded guilty on Thursday in a federal court in Los Angeles to heartlessly snatching away...