Phase Two, when a heartbeat was confirmed, was $13,000 to $22,000 and went mostly to pay the woman carrying the fetus and to pay for her housing. At Phase Three, the cost was $3,000 to $12,000 to cover delivery if the client got that far. The money was paid to Planet Hospital, which coordinated the process and served as a billing agent for the other clinics involved in the process.

“We had flown down to do our semen deposit and testing in July, and shortly after that we got an email that Planet Hospital had not paid the clinic fees” at Fertility Clinic of Cancún, Mr. Pommier said. “Planet Hospital and the clinic blamed everything on each other. At first the clinic told us they’d do whatever we wanted, but then they changed their tune when we wanted to transfer the semen, because they hadn’t been paid.”

In February, with complaints mounting and Planet Hospital’s reputation plummeting, Mr. Rupak made an offer to some of those who had lost money.

“I genuinely want to make all of you financially whole,” he said in a group email. “I do not want to live the rest of my life feeling that I hindered your dreams. This is not who I am.”

He proposed to pay them back — minus costs for services rendered — over the next 18 months, with an initial pool of just $10,000 to $15,000 to distribute.

“All I ask in exchange is that you refrain from disparaging me and my company publicly so that I have the ability to make an income and pay you back as aggressively as I possibly can.”

That same month, in an email complaining about the doctors he had worked with, and turning down a bid by a client for a refund, Mr. Rupak wrote, “Here is a little secret for all of you. There is a lot of treachery and deception in I.V.F./fertility/surrogacy because there is gobs of money to be made.”