The founder of a multinational fertility centre says she warned Interpol and global media outlets last year about the Japanese man at the centre of a human trafficking probe, after learning he wanted to father dozens of children to surrogate mothers every year.
Mariam Kukunashvili, co-founder of New Life Global Network, admitted to providing two surrogate mothers at the same time to Mitsutoki Shigeta last year, but said suspicions about the then-22-year-old's motives arose soon after.
"We served Shigeta one time only and then he demanded he wanted more and more babies," she said.
Turning point: The discovery of a "surrogacy factory" with nine babies all with the same father - likely a Japanese - stirred the fertility expert into taking action.
"I immediately found it suspicious, especially for a man of his age, and we refused to further serve him and warned Interpol, the BBC, CNN, and the Japanese embassy."
One of the surrogate mothers provided by New Life's Thailand branch gave birth to twins, while the other had a single child. Ms Kukunashvili said she learned while the women were pregnant that Mr Shigeta had commissioned another three surrogate mothers from a separate agency.
Birth certificates have been found indicating the Japanese businessman has fathered 15 babies to surrogate mothers in Thailand. Nine of the children were discovered during a raid on a condominium in Lat Phrao last week. At least three others have already been taken out of the country.
Police are still investigating whether the children were part of a human-trafficking scheme.
Documents obtained by the Bangkok Post appear to confirm that Ms Kukunashvili contacted Interpol on Aug 3 last year, warning that "something is very wrong here".
"He freezes sperm very frequently and says he is going to have 10 babies per year and wants to make sure he has sufficient frozen sperm [as he is going to make babies even when he is old]," Ms Kukunashvili wrote.
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"In spite of the fact he is already expecting six babies, he again requests from us to make more and more babies and to provide him with more and more surrogate mothers."
She said no response had been received from Interpol.
Ms Kukunashvili said New Life Thailand had acted only as an intermediary in the surrogacy arrangement with Mr Shigeta, while the actual IVF procedures were performed by Pisit Tantiwattanakul, director of the All IVF Center in Bangkok.
"I phoned Dr Pisit and informed him that [Mr Shigeta's request] was suspicious, but he did not listen and continued serving Shigeta himself," she said.
The All IVF Center was shut down last week after an investigation by the Medical Council of Thailand linked it to the Japanese businessman's case.
Commercial surrogacy is a breach of the council's ethical guidelines.
Dr Pisit has been unavailable for comment for the past week and efforts by the Bangkok Post to contact him yesterday went unanswered.
Although stressing she had never met Mr Shigeta in person, Ms Kukunashvili suggested her staff had painted him as a man showing possible signs of mental imbalance.
When questioned about his motives for fathering so many children, she said Mr Shigeta's initial response was "so that he could have a big family for voting … [and] win an election in Japan".
She said she also learned Mr Shigeta wanted to buy equipment to freeze his sperm at home, but Dr Pisit rejected the request due to the dangers of storing liquid nitrogen.
Ms Kukunashvili said her staff had been shown three separate passports which belong to Mr Shigeta — Japanese, Chinese and Cambodian.
Mr Shigeta fled Thailand on a flight to Macau. He is thought to be a resident of Hong Kong where he reportedly owns a luxury apartment and has minor business interests. His father is believed to be an influential businessman in Japan.
The New Life Thailand website was taken offline last week amid intense scrutiny on the commercial surrogacy trade in the wake of the case of baby Gammy, who was born with Down's syndrome, to a Thai surrogate mother and was allegedly abandoned by his Australian parents.
Cached versions of the site, however, reveal the company was offering basic surrogacy arrangements starting from around US$30,000 (960,000 baht).
Ms Kukunashvili stressed the agency did not operate a clinic, and was acting only as a broker.
The New Life Thailand web address now connects to a site advertising itself as New Life Asia, where no references to surrogacy can be found. New Life also has branches in Georgia, Ukraine, India, South Africa, Poland, Mexico and the US.