Who is Chris Aggeles? Sperm donor who claimed he was 160 IQ genius turned out to be ex-con with mental illness
A prolific sperm donor who claimed to be a genius with an IQ of 160 but was, in reality, an ex-con with a history of mental illness, has apologized to the 36 parents who had children with the help of his sperm.
The donor, 43-year-old Chris Aggeles, admitted his wrongdoing in the podcast 'Donor 9623', six years after a sperm bank accidentally revealed his true identity which sparked several lawsuits. Court documents stated that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in addition to serving prison time for burglary. Parents were shocked because they were actually expecting him to be a PhD candidate and genius who spoke four languages, as he had originally claimed.
"I hope that the families involved, and particularly the children involved, can find it in their hearts to forgive me," Aggeles told podcast host Dov Fox in an interview. "I'm sorry for betraying their trust, it was a sh*tty thing and I'm not happy about it. I feel terrible about it, I really do."
He also opened up about how he got into the business of donating sperm. Apparently, he began donating sperm in 2000 when he was 23. At that time, he was a college dropout and held a job as a waiter in Georgia while aspiring to succeed as a drummer one day. "One of my roommates had seen an advertisement in one of the student newspapers and thought I would be a good candidate. It's a way to earn income," he recalled in the podcast.
"It was a way for me to provide some stability in my life. It was an honor in a lot of ways, I felt like I was special somehow," he said. Based on the fake but impressive profile that he filled out for the sperm bank, demand for his sperm rose and he ended up becoming a prolific donor, sometimes contributing twice a week.
Aggeles added that he first experienced signs of having schizophrenia back in high school when he went through possible hallucinations hearing his name repeated over and over as he tried to fall asleep.
The official diagnosis of his mental disorder came in 1999 after which he was committed to a psychiatric facility. However, in the interview, Aggeles refused to admit that he suffered from schizophrenia, instead insisting that he had a schizophreniform disorder, which has similar symptoms but persists for less than six months.
In 2005, Aggeles was charged with one count of burglary and served eight months in jail after pleading guilty. Under the terms of the First Offender Act, his case was discharged after his probation was up in 2014. However, none of his criminal history or his bout with mental illness showed up in the form he filled out for donating sperm.
What did reflect on his profile was that he had a bachelor of science degree in neuroscience, a master's degree in artificial intelligence and was working on his PhD in neuroscience engineering. In an extensive health questionnaire where he was asked if he or any blood relative had any of the 143 medical conditions listed, Aggeles answered "no" to everything except that his father was color blind.
Even when the question of whether he suffered from schizophrenia or manic depression (bipolar disorder) arose, he wrote "no". He donated sperm within weeks after getting out of jail. In 2014, Georgia-based sperm bank Xytex Corp mistakenly revealed Aggeles' name and email while communicating with some of the families who had used his sperm.
Curious parents ran a search on his name and found out the truth that left them shocked. Multiple lawsuits were filed against Aggeles from families in the US, UK and Canada. "I had basically what amounted to a nervous breakdown," Aggeles, who didn’t have any children of his own, recalled. "I was embarrassed, I was remorseful. It was really, really tough."
He was never criminally charged in the matter despite going to the police station and confessing his crime. He said he did not hold a grudge against the sperm bank for revealing his identity. He wished for the angry parents to do the same. "I hope they don't hold a grudge against me. I hope that they realize that I'm imperfect to be sure but my intent was not malicious," he continued. "I do hope at some point I am able to meet if not all of them at least some of them."