• Sources familiar with the college admissions scandal told the Los Angeles Times that Yusi Zhao and her family, who live in Beijing, paid William “Rick” Singer $US6.5 million to get Zhao into Stanford University.
• No one in Zhao’s family has been charged as part of the college admissions scandal.
• The source told the LA Times that Zhao’s family met Singer through a Morgan Stanley financial adviser.
• Stanford announced last month that it had expelled an unnamed student from the university. There is no Molly Zhao or Yusi Zhao in Stanford’s public student directory.
• Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.

The family that’s accused of paying $US6.5 million to the ringleader of the college admissions scandal to get a student into an elite college has been identified.

Sources familiar with the case told the Los Angeles Times that Yusi Zhao and her family, who live in Beijing, were introduced to the scheme’s ringleader, William “Rick” Singer through a Morgan Stanley financial adviser.

The source said Zhao was admitted into Stanford University in spring 2017, and that her family had paid Singer $US6.5 million.

To ensure she was admitted into the school, Zhao was recruited as part of the school’s sailing program, despite not playing the sport, the source told the LA Times. Stanford’s former sailing coach, John Vandemoer, has pleaded guilty to racketeering in the case and admitted to working with Singer.

Stanford announced last month that it had expelled an unnamed student from the university in connection to the admissions scheme. There is currently no Molly Zhao or Yusi Zhao in Stanford’s public student directory.

Read more:
The two biggest clients of the college admissions scandal were reportedly families from China

No one in Zhao’s family has been charged in the scandal, and it remains unclear how much the parents knew about the scheme. Prosecutors told INSIDER on Wednesday that the college admissions scandal is still being investigated and that more defendants could be charged.

It was previously revealed that the two biggest clients of the college admissions scandal are families from China.

A person familiar with the case told the Wall Street Journal that the family accused of paying $US1.2 million to get a student into Yale University was the family of 21-year-old Sherry Guo. Guo’s lawyer, James Spertus, told the paper that the woman didn’t speak English until arriving in California and was “unfamiliar with how people apply to schools in the US.”

In total, 50 people have been charged in the college admissions scandal, including 33 parents who prosecutors say paid Singer to bribe college coaches and entrance exam administrators to guarantee their children spots at elite universities.

Singer and 19 others, including actress Felicity Huffman, have pleaded guilty in the case. Thirty defendants, including actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have pleaded not guilty

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