The mother of Zhao Yusi, a Chinese student who was expelled from Stanford University earlier in April amid investigations into a U.S. college admission cheating scandal, said on Friday that her family was misled into paying 6.5 million U.S. dollars to an adviser, who allegedly used it to as donation to the university.

Zhao's mother said through her lawyer Vincent Law that they paid the money to William Singer's foundation on April 21, 2017, a month after her daughter received the offer from the university. According to Mrs. Zhao's announcement, her daughter was also a victim in the incident.

The purpose of the donation was “for the salaries of academic staff, scholarships, athletics programs and helping those students who otherwise will not be able to afford to attend Stanford,” according to the statement.

She said that her family's generosity has been taken advantage of, as she is unfamiliar with the admission process for U.S. colleges. 

Stanford University expelled Zhao for fabricated credentials in her application, amid the still unfolding U.S. college admission cheating scandal, reported U.S. media on April 8.

Zhao was accepted through the standard process and not as a recruited athlete, but her admission was reported to be followed by a contribution of 6.5 million U.S. dollars paid through a former coach to a Stanford sailing program.

The Stanford Daily, a student-run newspaper that focuses on news around Stanford community said in an earlier report that the expulsion was one of the cases linked with the bribery scandal rocking college admissions nationwide.

The newspaper also reported that Zhao left Stanford later and all her credits earned on campus have been vacated by the university.

Stanford has fired the university's former head sailing coach John Vandemoer who admitted donating half-million-dollar funds to the university's sailing program and pleaded guilty for accepting donations in exchange for recommending non-sailors as recruited athletes.

Several U.S. elite universities including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Texas at Austin have been involved in the 2019 nationwide college admissions scandal, the largest ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.

At the center of the vast cheating scheme, which involved at least 50 Hollywood celebrities, prominent businessmen and college coaches, is a Newport Beach, California-based company called Edge College & Career Network, which was run by William "Rick" Singer.

The Stanford Daily said Singer, who is facing multiple criminal investigations, has charged parents, including 11 Bay Area parents and Stanford affiliates, thousands of dollars to artificially inflate their children's standardized test scores for university application.

click to read more:

Hollywood actresses appear in court in U.S. college admissions bribery case

Lori Loughlin dropped from Hallmark channel roles after scandal

Hollywood actors, CEOs accused of paying bribes, faking photos to scam U.S. college admissions