Nevin Shapiro Vows To Bring Down Miami, Predicts Death Penalty

In a series of angry emails to the Miami Herald, former University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, who's in New Orleans prison for 20 years for a Ponzi scheme, threatened to reveal more information that could condemn the Hurricanes football program further. Miami officials are confident, according to the Herald, that Shapiro's threat of bringing the NCAA "death penalty," the same one used to effectively end SMU's football program in the late 1980s, on the 'Canes is an empty one.

Some of Shapiro's claims of cash dealings have been proved false by the NCAA, the Herald reported, including any wrongdoings surrounding current basketball player DeQuan Jones. There clearly was some wrongdoing going on, and players who were involved in the investigation but not at Miami have apparently given incriminating interviews with investigators. Others have abstained, according to the Herald. What's more, the NCAA hasn't contacted many former players named in the original Yahoo! Sports report, and even if they had, they aren't required to assist in the investigation.

The Herald doesn't believe that the death penalty will be leveled either. Here's the end of their in-depth report (which you should read in is entirety):

Michael Ward, who's in charge of Newark's FBI division (which investigated Shapiro's Ponzi scheme), said Shapiro's allegations "against the players would not rise to the level of a federal crime. There is no FBI investigation of Shapiro's allegations."

Overall, Shapiro sounds like a desperate man, willing to say anything to exact revenge and still furious that "once the [ex-UM] players turned pro, they turned their back on me.'' Incredibly, he says of himself, "I'm more of a victim than a Ponzi schemer and assailant." The federal government doesn't see it that way.

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