The Billionaire, His Mystery Wife and College Football s Wildest Recruiting Saga – WSJ

When the University of Michigan football team s boosters announced on Nov. 21 that they had flipped the No. 1 high school quarterback in the country from Louisiana State to Ann Arbor, it sent shock waves through the sport. 

The on-field implications were only a part of the surprise. Just as stunning was how the Wolverines had pulled it off: with the help of a surprise donation from the world s fourth-richest man, tech billionaire Larry Ellison. The strangest part was that Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, had no known connection to the school.

But in recent days, it has emerged that Ellison does have a close, previously unknown link to Michigan after all. Out of nowhere, a statement from a Michigan booster group known as the Champions Circle singled out Ellison and Jolin, whom the group identified as his wife, as key players in the school s pursuit of Bryce Underwood, the top-rated high-school quarterback in the country.

That statement appeared to reveal that Ellison, who divorced his fourth wife more than a decade ago, had remarried. Jolin, meanwhile, had almost no online presence.

Now, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found that Jolin is a 33-year-old also known as Keren Zhu, according to two people familiar with the couple and several public records. And most importantly, she happens to be a Michigan alum.

via www.wsj.com

Probably it was a Michigan plot from the very beginning. On the upside, at least Ellison didn’t give the money to Stanford.