Houston surrogacy company embezzled millions to fund owner Dominique Side’s rap career, new documents show

HOUSTON — After weeks of questions about what happened to the millions of dollars intended parents put up to pay their surrogates, an amended complaint filed Monday night in Harris County alleges that the Houston-based surrogacy escrow management company diverted millions of dollars to fund its owner’s rap career and lavish lifestyle.

Surrogacy Escrow Account Management LLC, or SEAM, and its owner Dominique Side, have been in the shadows since mid-June, when the company appeared to abruptly shut down and informed clients that legal action had forced the suspension of operations.

KPRC 2 spoke with alleged victims who are intended parents from across the country, including Bellingham, Washington, White Fish, Montana, and Asbury Park, New Jersey, all of whom say their surrogates have stopped getting paid.

According to the documents, SEAM allegedly misappropriated funds from the expectant parents for years to “improperly enrich Dominique and his business partners,” named in the lawsuit as Anthony Hall, Fredrick Denson and Kevin Yancy.

More than $2.2 million of the parents-to-be’s funds was used to “fund his music career as ‘Dom,’ a rap and R&B singer and music producer,” the lawsuit says.

Here’s how the sequestered funds were allegedly spent, according to bank records described in the lawsuit:

• Lavish trips all over the world

• Designer clothing and luxury vehicles

• A membership to Soho House, an “exclusive club for music industry celebrities”

Side reportedly told Capital One Bank on June 17 that she wanted to close all of SEAM’s bank accounts and that she “would no longer need these funds.”

The victims’ attorneys subpoenaed the bank records, which also revealed that SEAM transferred more than $6.2 million of the parents-to-be’s escrowed funds to fund Side and Hall’s music studio, Vgn Bae Studios.

The studio, located at 7800 Amelia Road in the Spring Branch neighborhood, has musical equipment and other facilities valued at between $700,000 and $1.3 million, records show.

SEAM also allegedly paid $21,000 a month to rent the building that houses the music studio, which was recently listed for sale for $3.5 million, according to the documents.

In June, Side reportedly told Capitol One that she was no longer associated with Vgn Bae and that Hall had become the sole owner.

KPRC 2 tried multiple times to reach Side, but she did not respond. An automated email response said she was under active investigation by federal authorities and that legal counsel had advised her not to respond to any inquiries.

Bank records also revealed that SEAM purchased land in Houston worth at least $575,000 in 2019, built a custom home in New Orleans worth about $300,000 in 2023 and purchased a home on Winton Street in Houston in the name of the music studio worth about $433,000, the records show.

Additionally, some of the money was allegedly paid to Nikki Green, LLC, which is apparently a designer clothing company owned by Side, Hall, and Christopher Thompson.

The company is said to have showcased its clothing line at Las Vegas Fashion Week in October 2023. The documents state that the clothing showcased and all expenses incurred by the LLC were funded with money from the expectant parents.

According to the records, approximately $750,000 was paid to Denson, who owned SEAM until 2017, in what was apparently a “kickback fee based on the amount of escrow funds SEAM receives each month,” which were transfers unknown to or authorized by the intended parents.

Hall allegedly received at least $100,000 of the parents-to-be’s funds, and around the time SEAM appears to have collapsed, SEAM transferred the Houston land worth about $575,000 to Hall for $10, according to a Texas general warranty deed filed in court records.

In January 2024, SEAM pledged $69,500 in escrow funds from the expectant parents to Pearl Delta Funding, LLC in exchange for a $48,250 cash payment, the documents show. Once that money was deposited into SEAM’s operating account, it was allegedly withdrawn to pay for Side’s American Express card.

“(The parents-to-be) did everything right and then some coward comes along and takes the money without explaining himself,” Lori Hood, a Houston attorney with the Shackelford Law Firm, told KPRC 2 last month. “We’re not talking about a cheap process. People save for years to be able to do this.”

The documents state that SEAM transferred all of its remaining assets to avoid creditors and, around June 14, transferred everything it considered an asset to Hall.

Side also reportedly deleted his social media accounts and most of his websites.

A second lawsuit was filed Friday night in Harris County by another Houston attorney, Cody Dumas, on behalf of an alleged Dallas victim.

Dumas told KPRC 2’s Bryce Newberry that his firm has been in contact with nearly 100 alleged victims across the country, including some in France and Asia.

A temporary injunction hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in the original case, which is expected to determine whether the temporarily frozen assets will remain frozen until the investigation is complete, according to lawyers in the case.

If you have been affected by SEAM, the FBI still asks that any information be submitted using this online form.

KPRC 2’s Bryce Newberry will be in court Wednesday to provide an update. If you’ve been affected, feel free to contact him via E-mail.