Nevin Karey Shapiro (born April 13, 1969) is a convicted felon who currently is imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he 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 Shapiro was born in Brooklyn 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, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, was a member of the school's basketball and wrestling teams. Ponzi scheme Federal criminal allegations Shapiro started Capitol Investments USA, which he claimed bought wholesale groceries and shipped them to more expensive markets (although he said that he never actually sold the groceries). Shapiro's Ponzi scheme was based on attracting investors to Capitol Investments. He promised investors they would make 10 to 26 percent commissions every month. In 2003, his business grew very quickly through connections with Sherwin Jarol in Chicago, Craig Currie in New Jersey, and Sydney "Jack" Williams, who had real estate in Naples, Florida and Indianapolis. According to FBI Special Agent Gregory Yankow in a Federal Criminal Complaint dated April 20, 2010 (Case No. 10-8082), Shapiro "directed others to create and show to the investors documents fraudulently touting Capitol's profitability. Those documents included: financial statements; profit and loss figures fraudulently representing that Capitol's wholesale grocery business was generating tens of millions of dollars in annual sales; personal and business tax returns for Shapiro and Capitol also fraudulently reflecting those sales; and numerous invoices fraudulently reflecting transactions between Capitol and other companies in the wholesale grocery business." 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." The FBI reported that he had diverted $35 million for his personal use from 2005 to 2009. Shapiro allegedly rented his yacht to