Nevin Shapiro, the former Miami supporter whose fraudulent involvement with the school led to a massive NCAA investigation and significant hurricane sanctions, was given leniency by President Joe Biden for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme.
Shapiro was among 1,499 commutation recipients announced by the White House on Friday. Federal records show that Shapiro, who was initially sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison and repaying nearly $83 million to jilted investors, will be officially released on December 22.
Court records show Shapiro has been under house arrest since 2020.
The leniency merely “reduces the period of imprisonment,” the Justice Department said, adding that it “does not constitute forgiveness of the underlying crime, but simply pardons part of the sentence.”
The Shapiro saga is one of the most chaotic chapters in the history of college sports. The Miami investigation spanned more than 30 months, beginning when Shapiro first contacted the NCAA to brag about his work with coaches and athletes in Miami and his attempt to crack down on people he believed had betrayed him while he was in legal trouble.
The NCAA even committed irregularities during the Miami investigation. The NCAA’s Division of Enforcement – which does not have subpoena power – used certain information gathered by the lawyer through depositions arranged under the guise of involvement in the Shapiro bankruptcy case. Because the NCAA considered this information to be ill-gotten, it resulted in some charges being dropped. The lawyer involved in the case was also sanctioned by the Florida Bar.
One investigator who worked on the NCAA’s investigation into Miami athletics even wrote a letter to a federal judge on Shapiro’s behalf just days before the sentencing.
In 2011, Shapiro told Yahoo Sports that he spent “millions” on additional benefits for Miami athletes. The NCAA, in its 2013 notice of allegations received by Miami, alleged that Shapiro was responsible for providing approximately $170,000 in impermissible benefits to Hurricanes athletes, recruits, coaches and others from 2002 to 2010.
Miami itself imposed a series of penalties — including rejecting bids to two bowl games and the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game — and ultimately lost scholarships in football and men’s basketball because of its transgressions. The school was placed on a three-year probationary period by the NCAA, which ended in 2016.
