Chinese billionaire paid $6.5 million to get daughter into Stanford

The Chinese family who allegedly paid $6.5 million to get their daughter into Stanford University has been identified.

The billionaire family of former sophomore Yusi Zhao paid the largest amount of money in the college admissions scandal.

Yusi Zhao's father, Tao Zhao, is the chairman and co-founder of the pharmaceutical company Shandong Buchang, based in Heze, China.

The Zhao's -- parents or daughter -- have not been charged, according to the Los Angeles Times. They were referred to the admissions scam's ringleader, William Rick Singer, by an employee at Morgan Stanley, the source said.

Dozens of families have been connected to the scandal, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

Yusi Zhao reportedly left her on-campus residence at the end of March. Her profile has been deleted from the campus directory on April 10. A declared East Asian Studies major, Yusi was a member of Stanford’s Forum for American-Chinese Exchange (FACES), and had planned to attend Stanford’s Bing Overseas Studies Program’s inaugural Hong Kong program in fall 2019, according to the Stanford Daily.

Stanford spokespeople said they are unable to confirm or deny whether Yusi has been expelled due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

In order to get Yusi Zhao into Stanford, Singer allegedly created a fake bio of her as a competitive sailing athlete in order to get her admitted with the cooperation of the sailing coach. She was not offered an athletic scholarship.

Singer promised to donate $500,000 to the Stanford sailing program over the course of several years.

Former Stanford sailing head coach John Vandemoer pleaded guilty to racketeering in collaboration with Singer’s fraudulent charity. Both Vandemoer and his attorney Robert Fisher declined to comment to the Stanford Daily.

The second largest sum paid to Singer -- $1.2 million -- was also paid by a Chinese family to get their daughter into Yale. The family of former student Sherry Guo was also not charged.

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Lawyer: Chinese families are victims in college admissions scandal

Freshmen moved onto the Yale campus in the fall of 2018.

New reports indicate two families in China are accused of paying more than $1-million dollars each to get their children into college, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The family of 21-year old Sherry Guo paid $1.2 million to get her into Yale. She is no longer enrolled at the Ivy League institution. Guo’s family is accused of paying the money to Rick Singer, who prosecutors call the mastermind in the scandal. Then Singer allegedly paid former Yale women’s soccer coach Rudolph Meredith $400,00 to get Guo in as a soccer recruit.

A second family from China is suspected of paying $6.5 million for their child's admission to an unidentified college. Neither family has been charged, but remains under investigation.

The indicted families – including actors Felicity Huffman (who has pleaded guilty) and Lori Loughlin – with everything from conspiracy to commit fraud to money laundering.

Because of their unfamiliarity with the American colleges' admission process, the two families paid significantly more than the 33 parents already facing criminal charges in the case, according to Axios. Those families paid $250,000 – $400,000.

According to Guo’s lawyer, James Spertus, the applicant and her parents did not know the payment was going to be used for a bribe. The parents reportedly do not speak English, never had direct contact with Singer, and the report alleges that that Guo was “naive” about the American college admissions process, repports Refinery29.

Singer reportedly sent the money as a donation to Yale soccer coach extolling the applicant's soccer abilities. The coach has since resigned.

Sherry Guo moved to the U.S. as a teenager and attended high school as an older student in California, which explains why -- at age 21 -- she is listed as a freshman at Yale. where she worked at the Yale Layer, an undergraduate publication; her information has since been scrubbed.

The Guo daughter is "devastated because she is no longer in college, period,” said Spertus, who also claims that the large size of the payment may indicate that Singer was exploiting the Guo amily and their lack of knowledge about the college process in the U.S.

“The amount alone shows that he was preying on the Chinese community,” he told the New York Times, claiming the family thought the money was for a donation. “They did not know that he was going to use that money for a bribe. There is no evidence of that whatsoever.”

AsAm News contributed to this report.

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