Renegade sperm bank donor claims he’s helping the 99 percent

A Silicon Valley security expert, ordered to shut down his in-home, online one-man sperm bank, vowed Tuesday to fight federal regulators because he is helping “the 99 percent.”

Trent Arsenault faces up to a $100,000 fine and as much as a year in prison if he does not comply with the order issued more than a year ago.

“It’s sort of like my way of helping the 99 percent,” he told KTVU. “A lot of the people who come out, who request the sperm cannot afford the traditional sperm bank method or their insurance plan doesn’t cover those fertility treatments that can run up into the thousands of dollars. I’m helping those childless couples have babies.”

Since 2006, Arsenault has been donating his sperm to couples for free, but federal health regulators showed up in November of 2010 to investigate his operation.

“About a year ago investigators from the FDA came out to my house and met with me in my bedroom,” he said. “The outcome of that was a cease of manufacturing order… My side of the story is that it is not a sperm bank or a clinic or some kind of an establishment. It’s actually just some individuals meeting with me with the goal of helping those couples wanting to have a baby, have a baby. There is no money or financial motive behind it.”

In a "Cease Manufacturing" letter, the FDA claimed that Arsenault runs a "firm" that "recovers and distributes semen, therefore is a manufacturer of human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products."

An FDA inspection of Arsenault's house carried out between August and September 2010 found that he did not take the legally required precautions to prevent the spread of disease. Inspectors also questioned his record keeping, stating he did not “provide sufficient documentation.”

The FDA has estimated that Arsenault dealt out 328 semen donations to 46 recipients between 2006 and 2010.

The Fremont man said the oldest child fathered from his sperm is 4-years-old and that some of his clients were in some stage of pregnancy Tuesday.

Through a Washington, D.C. –based law firm, Arsenault has been fighting the FDA order.