The Los Angeles Times is reporting that dozens of aspiring parents and the women they hired to be surrogate mothers filed a class action lawsuit in California this week against a Modesto-based surrogacy agency that abruptly shut its doors and stopped returning phone calls, leaving hundreds of thousands of client dollars unaccounted for, according to the allegations.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, alleges breach of contract and fraud and names Surrogenesis USA and its escrow company, Michael Charles Independent Financial Holding Group.

The plaintiffs, who have also taken their complaints to the FBI, claim that they gave Surrogenesis as much as $100,000 each in exchange for assistance finding surrogate mothers.

If you or someone you know is interested in filing a class action lawsuit in California, contact Los Angeles-based class action law firm Ringler Kearney Alvarez LLP.