The University of Miami may be in some deep trouble very soon.
Yahoo! Sports released the findings of an incredibly reported 11-month investigation into the university's football and basketball programs on Tuesday. With the help of a former booster now serving time in prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme, Yahoo's Charles Robinson has unearthed plenty of damning allegations.
Nevin Shapiro was the centerpiece of the website's thorough and almost year-long investigation in which he admitted in over 100 hours of jailhouse interviews that he provided benefits to "at least" 72 Hurricanes athletes.
Shapiro allegedly gave millions in impermissible benefits to players including (just to name a few): cash, prostitutes, jewelry, paid trips to night clubs and strip clubs, on-field bounties for injuring opposing players and in one case, an abortion.
Shapiro, who is currently serving time for his role in a Ponzi scheme of over $900 million also used his role as a Miami booster to help attract clients for his role in Axcess Sports & Entertainment, a sports agency.
He allegedly used his role there to attract potential clients, building upon relationships he cultivated with players while they were at Miami. According to the Yahoo! report, Shapiro used his access to Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork to help sign him to the agency.
The Yahoo! report claims that Shapiro was able to get Wilfork for the agency in part thanks to "a $50,000 lump sum payment the booster said he gave to the defensive tackle during his junior season. Later, the booster said he provided a pair of $50,000 Cadillac Escalades to Wilfork and his fiancee shortly after the defensive tackle entered the draft."
The report also alleges that Shapiro offered the Hurricanes in-game performance bounties for big plays and big performances. He also alleges that he paid players bounty money for trying to hurt opposing players. Those bounties were placed on quarterbacks like Florida's Tim Tebow and Florida State's Chris Rix, the latter of which had a $5,000 bounty on his head for three years.
"We pounded the [expletive] out of that Kid," Shapiro told Yahoo! about the Rix bounty. "Watch the tape of those games. You'll see so many big hits on him. Guys were going after that $5,000 in cash. [Jonathan] Vilma tried to kill him — just crushed him — a couple of times trying to get that $5,000. And he almost got it, too."
Shapiro said that for the most part, Miami officials turned a blind eye toward what was going on.
"If they hired a private investigator for a day, it would have been the easiest job that guy ever had," Shapiro told said in the report. "It would have been over in five minutes. You would have had all the information you needed."
Read the extensive full report to get all of the details.
