What ever it was that was going on down at the University of Miami, they must have had a hell of a time… because folks just can’t stop talking about it. Now even the guy who was convicted of running the shady deals is talking about it… and naming names. Coaches names. It just keeps getting uglier.
There is a lot of money to be made on college sports, especially if you have inside information that is not available to the general betting public. It’s been done before. Like I said, there is just too much money involved. Human nature being what it is and the odds being what they are… I’ll take the under. Sorry to be that way… but there it is.
Nevin Shapiro seems to have been the warped brain behind much of the shenanigans going on down in Miami back then. He’s in prison now, convicted of running a Ponzi scheme that stole millions from well meaning investors including some celebs.
Shapiro is talking now and claiming that he received inside information from Miami coaches that aided him in placing winning wagers on certain games. Large winning wagers. The man posed as an avid University of Miami booster… and perhaps he was but, in reality, he was milking the program for all that it was worth.
Apparently, all of that inside info didn’t help Shapiro all that much. He claims to have lost over $9 million gambling on sports. As a sort of conformation of that figure, Florida handicapper Adam Meyer has agreed to return $900,000 in payments received from Shapiro to a bankruptcy court trustee in order to repay investment victims of Shapiro’s $930 million Ponzi scheme.
Shapiro went so far as a Hurricane ‘booster’ back in those days that he provided various ‘benefits’ to U of M athletes over an eight year period. These ‘benefits’ allegedly included money, goods, prostitutes and even sex parties on his yacht. Shapiro was known to have close relations with the head coaches of both the football and basketball teams.
University of Miami president Donna Shalala along with former coaches Clint Hurtt and Aubrey Hill from the football team and basketball coaches Frank Haith, Jorge Fernandez and Jake Morton will all be appearing before the NCAA infractions committee soon.
Miami has already enforced two football bowl bans that were self-imposed. The fate of the future of the program is an issue still to be decided.
