Nevin Shapiro

Nevin Karey Shapiro (born April 13, 1969) is an American fraudster who received a 20-year prison sentence for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. The remainder of Shapiro's sentence was commuted by President Joe Biden in December 2024. According to interviews, he allegedly engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for University of Miami athletes. Shapiro allegedly provided football players cash, goods, prostitutes, and assorted favors.

Early life and education Shapiro was born in Brooklyn on April 13, 1969, to a Jewish family and moved with his family to Miami Beach, Florida at an early age. He graduated in 1986 from Miami Beach Senior High School. Shapiro was a member of the school's basketball and wrestling teams. He promised investors they would make 10 to 26 percent commissions every month.

According to the criminal complaint, Shapiro incurred "millions of dollars in debts resulting from illegal gambling on sporting events; more than $400,000 for floor seats to the Miami Heat professional basketball team; approximately $26,000 monthly for mortgage payments on his residence in Miami Beach, which was recently appraised at approximately $5.3 million; approximately $7,250 monthly for payments on a $1.5 million Riviera yacht; approximately $4,700 monthly for the lease of a Mercedes-Benz automobile;" and an undisclosed amount "for a pair of diamond-studded handcuffs, which he gifted to a prominent professional athlete."

Home transfer Shapiro was transferred from federal prison to home confinement on June 11, 2020, where he will continue to serve out the remainder of his 20-year sentence under monitoring by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The transfer comes on the heels of recent federal prison directives to move some at-risk inmates to home confinement in the face of COVID-19 outbreaks. Shapiro, who was 51 at the time, was aided by having served over 50 percent of his sentence, while also demonstrating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and hypertension, both of which put him at a higher risk of life-threatening complication if he were to contract coronavirus.

Shapiro was transferred to the home of a family member. He was to be monitored electronically by the Bureau of Prisons and subject to a range of the bureau's guidelines, which included a ban on the consumption of alcohol, random drug testing, and a monitored walking radius near the residence, and other criteria. He was also required to wear an ankle monitor at all times. He remained eligible to hold a job, although any work would require approval through the bureau and his earnings were garnished to repay remaining restitution to his victims.

Shapiro also faces a civil case in Miami, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Shapiro, 10-cv-21281.

Commutation In December 2024, President Joe Biden commuted Shapiro's sentence, which the Department of Justice stressed "does not imply forgiveness of the underlying offense, but simply remits a portion of the punishment." He was officially listed as released on December 22.

University of Miami scandal

In 2002, Shapiro paid $1.5 million for a 30 percent stake in a sports management company called Axcess Sports, founded by Michael Huyghue. The agency signed several Miami Hurricanes football players, including Vince Wilfork.

In August 2010, Shapiro told the Miami Herald that he was writing a book The Real U: 2001 to 2010 Inside the Eye of the Hurricane in which he promised to tell how the University of Miami had violated NCAA rules affecting more than 100 players. "Once the players turned pro, they turned their back on me. It made me feel like a used friend," he said. Considering such a long investigation yielded very little incriminating evidence, it was widely viewed that the NCAA investigation and the media attention to the case did not match the relatively minor infractions that were proven to be committed.

Before the NCAA penalties were announced, it was revealed that NCAA enforcement staff paid Shapiro's lawyer $25,000 to call in University of Miami personnel during an unassociated legal deposition for Shapiro's bankruptcy, and ask a specific list of questions related to the university's scandal. Shapiro's attorney used her subpoena power in the bankruptcy case to question two witnesses who were crucial to the NCAA's case. The NCAA had no subpoena power, and neither witness had any obligation to talk to the association. The backlash from the revelations about the NCAA's activities, coupled with the university's unprecedented self-imposed sanctions, helped the Miami Hurricanes escape additional harsh NCAA penalties.