President Joe Biden commutes sentence of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro

In his final days in office, U.S. President Joe Biden is rolling out his final pardons and appeals for clemency. That now includes infamous University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, according to TMZ.

Shapiro, arguably more famous for admitting to providing illegal benefits and expensive gifts to former Miami players in the 2000s, was among 1,499 commutations issued by Biden on Thursday, TMZ reported.

The 55-year-old Shapiro is currently serving house arrest after being let out of prison in 2020 following just seven years of a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to eight felony counts related to a 2010 conviction for a $930 million Ponzi scheme that lasted between 2005-09.

Biden didn’t specifically address including Shapiro in his clemency announcement, but the White House did release a statement Thursday.

“As the President has said, the United States is a nation of second chances,” the statement read, per TMZ. “The President recognizes how the clemency power can advance equal justice under law and remedy harms caused by practices of the past.”

Details of Nevin Shapiro’s Ponzi scheme, Miami scandal

According to the 2010 criminal complaint into his Ponzi scheme, Shapiro solicited approximately $930 million from people that thought they were investing in a grocery distribution business. Instead, Shaprio misappropriated more than $35 million for personal use, including $5 million on illegal sports gambling, as well as providing payments to dozens of Miami student-athletes.

These payments included cash upwards of $10,000 and gifts such as jewelry and trips to Miami Beach nightclubs and restaurants. As part of his plea deal, Shapiro admitted that more than 50 victim investors lost between $50-100 million as a result of his Ponzi scheme.

More notably, Shapiro was also at the head of a nearly decade-long influence pedaling scandal that involved paying millions to then-University of Miami players in the early-to-late 2000s.

Shapiro confessed to providing illegal benefits to more than 70 Miami football players — allegedly among them Jon Beason, Devin Hester, Willis McGahee, Antrel Rolle, Vince Wilfork, and the late Sean Taylor — in a 2011 jailhouse interview with Yahoo! sports writer Charles Robinson.

The eventual NCAA investigation exposed a clear lack of NCAA-mandated institutional oversight in Coral Gables. The university’s football and basketball programs faced serious penalties from both in-house and from the NCAA, including lost scholarships, recruiting restrictions and a three-year postseason probation for the football team.