Schadenfreude (The UM Investigation)

[Bull Martin]

Oh, what happened at Miami was worse. I guess you dig prostitutes servicing your players and someone else paying.

Go back home and post on your board.

I'll take after Shapiro and pay for your abortion from this site, Mutiny. Though, to be fair, I at least have the decency to tell you about it.

[Reliable Source]

In the words of the immortal "Deep Throat"(pun intended), "follow the money".

[Rizman]

Why did the coaches take a blind eye to what was going on? Are you telling me they did not know?

[Reliable Source]

Why did the coaches take a blind eye to what was going on? Are you telling me they did not know?

::::crickets chirping:::::

[Hurricane Mutiny]

Hurricane Mutiny, does that mean you are leaving the Hurricane's as a fan? You are on mutiny from them? So, are you saying that the year long research and interviews Yahoo reporter did was fabricated?

Hurricane Mutiny is an homage to the great book "Cane Mutiny" by Bruce Feldman.

As for Charles Robinson, he was yet another con victim of Nevin Shapiro, just as Dave Kujan was decived by Verbal Kint.

I'll start at the end of the story, so you understand Shapiro's motivation to lie about all the money he "spent". He has a couple of million dollars hidden offshore. Shapiro grew up in a family where his step-father was a con man, and this is not Shapiro's first Ponzi scheme. He had an exit strategy. He has already hidden money, and all he has to do now is very simple. If he can convince the criminal and bankruptcy courts that he has "accounted for" all the money he spent (i.e., there is no reason for them to hold up his criminal sentence and bankruptcy settlements by continuing to search for his offshore money), then he will quietly do his time and emerge from prison at a still young age. He'll be able to access his money, and there is nothing anyone will be able to do about it.

So what better way to claim that you spent money (that you secretly stashed) then to blame people who cannot otherwise disprove your claims. It's fairly simple, Shapiro gave a few hundred to a kid (which the kid doesn't want to admit), but Shapiro claims it was thousands. Nobody believes the kid because we all know that a college football player who is willing to take a hundred will certainly not stop at that. Then Shapiro multiplies the lie times 100 former players, and the next thing you know, he has paid "millions" to UM and UM players when the actual total was nothing near that amount.

As for Charles "Dave Kujan" Robinson, he pretty much admitted to the ease with which Shapiro was able to manipulate him. Robinson deigned to take questions from CaneSport subscribers (CaneSport/Rivals is owned by Yahoo), and he described his journalistic process. Robinson claimed that he was initially skeptical of Robinson's claims, but that he overcame his skepticism and became convinced by a couple of things in particular. One was the tremendous volume of documentation, which he readily admitted were credit card BILLS and cell phone BILLS. The other was Shapiro's amazingly detailed memory of events which tied to UM games or events, many of which he had PHOTOS of.

Sounds pretty good so far, right?

But has been descibed over and over again, credit card BILLS are not the same as the actual credit card RECEIPTS, and cell phone BILLS are not actual phone RECORDS. For instance, when the IRS comes in to audit my company, they don't ask for my credit card BILLS, which provide almost no detail. They ask for our general ledger detail, where we should be recording some details of the transaction, and they ask for credit card RECEIPTS on which we are supposed to write details of the expense, particularly if we take non-employees out for business meals. So when Nevin claims "I spent $2,000 on dinner for X players on this night", there is no way of proving how much of the credit card charge went for various components, such as entrees (one man can only eat so much), alcohol (it is VERY possible to spend huge sums on wine at South Beach restaurants), or tip (which could be huge if a scumbag is trying to buy special treatment). On this count, I am very happy to accept the investigations and findings of the NCAA. While Nevin claimed (and Yahoo reported) that he spent tens of thousands on the recent UM players (the ones who were suspended for part of 2011), the NCAA only found a total of about $3,000 in extra benefits given to a dozen players. So that is an average of less than $300 per person, not "tens of thousands", as Shapiro claimed (and Yahoo reported). As for the phone BILLS, it is impossible for any of our players to disprove Shapiro's claims that he was on great terms with them. As has already been established, Shapiro contributed to UM's "Living Scholars" program, which is an NCAA-approved program that allows donors to make direct contact with players. Frankly, I hope the NCAA outlaws stuff like this, but the core point to be made is that the phone BILLS show brief phone calls (permissible), but no detail of the conversations. Therefore, Nevin can claim anything he wants about the phone calls, and the players have no way of disproving his claims.

As for the ridiculous Shapiro claims that Robinson came to believe due to Shapiro's amazing ability to remember details and provide pictures, there are plenty of holes in THAT part of the story. Here's an example - one of the ways that Shapiro got Robinson to believe that he had tremendous access to the UM program was that he showed Robinson pictures taken with players on the field at the 2003 Fiesta Bowl (you know, the year we played Ohio State in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME). Why were these photos and claims important to Robinson? Because as we all know, Nevin claimed that he started contributing to UM during the 2002 season, therefore, these must have been HUGE contributions for UM to give him field access for the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME after only one season as a donor. Also, as I pointed out above, Robinson was hugely impressed by Shapiro's ability to tell a vivid story supported by provable details and, you know, actual PICTURES. Thus, when Robinson had those "Fiesta Bowl" photos scanned into the story, and included in the "Accusations" pages of all of the identified players, he reported exactly what Shapiro told him, that Shapiro was at, AND ON THE FIELD FOR, the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, after only one year of making donations to UM.

Only one problem - the photos (and there were several) that Shapiro claimed had been taken on the field at the Fiesta Bowl...actually featured UM players in a different-colored jersey than what we wore against Ohio State...and there were background features and signs which clearly indicated that Nevin Shapiro was on the field at...THE ORANGE BOWL. And not the "Orange Bowl Classic" game played in Joe Robbie Stadium, but the ACTUAL Orange Bowl in Miami where UM played. Thus Nevin only had the typical "pre-game field access" given to Living Scholars, of which he was one.

Now, I know that some of you will say "so what, Robinson made a mistake". Sure. But if someone told you a sob story about how he lost a brother when the World Trade Center collapsed on 9/11, and he showed you photos that he took that morning when he dropped his brother off for work...and you SUBSEQUENTLY discovered that the photos were NOT what the person claimed them to be, not only would you be disbelieving of whether he was actually in NYC on 9/11, but you might also start to doubt all of the other claims made by that person, as you would begin to view that person as dishonest and/or unreliable.

That is how NORMAL people behave. But Charles Robinson had his "story of the century" to write, and he NEVER BOTHERED TO FACT-CHECK THE PHOTOS THAT NEVIN GAVE HIM. Whoops.

Anyhow, Shapiro claimed a LOT of stuff (which Yahoo reported) that either has not, or cannot, be proven.

I think the better question that should be posed is this. You read the Yahoo article. Do you want to believe it because you want to? Did YOU see all the evidence? You are allowing yourself to be convinced because one guy (Robinson) saw another guy's credit card bills and phone bills and heard his exaggerations and wrote an article about it. Or do you want to be skeptical and allow yourself to POSSIBLY take into account that when MULTIPLE OTHER INVESTIGATORS (such as the NCAA, the bankruptcy trustee and his law firm, the University of Miami, and the Justice Department) looked into these claims, that they could find nothing approximating what Shapiro claimed to Yahoo?

Do you think the Justice Department ignored the Yahoo article when it signed off on Shapiro's plea deal?

Do you think that the Bankruptcy Court, the judge, the trustee, and members of the trustee's law firm were able to identify any more than 3K of benefits given to the 12 players who were suspended in 2011, but yet they are not asking for any more than 3K for the victims of Shapiro's Ponzi scheme?

Lots of other people much smarter than Charles Robinson (and with access to things like subpoena power) have looked into Nevin Shapiro's claims and found very little that could be proven.

What is it going to take for people to actually CONSIDER that perhaps Nevin Shapiro lied and/or exaggerated to Charles Robinson?

[Triple B]

Dude, did you type all that ....???

[Hurricane Mutiny]

Dude, did you type all that ....???

Yep.

[Triple B]

Dude, did you type all that ....???

Yep.

No offense, but I don't even read Bulls' fans posts that are that long ....

[Who'sYourData?]

I agree with Trip. The general jist is that you don't believe Shapiro's story.

I've asked you to provide a link to a reputable source to provide some backup to your fabulous fairy tale. You have thus far failed to do so.

So, I ask again.

Link?

[Paisa el Toro]

His story is as much conjecture as our belief that they'll get the death penalty. Until the NCAA concludes its investigation, there's no way to know definitively which way this bad boy will turn. Depending on the records the NCAA is able to dig up to corroborate the Shapiro story, it'll mean the difference between a tiny lack of institutional control or a cluster f $$ k sized lack of control.

Obviously, as selfish Bulls fans, most of us are hoping for the latter, for obvious reasons. Sebastian the Ibis done in by Boats and Hoes; I think that'll be the next video that Uncle Luke will drop after his beloved Hurricanes get a Macho Man elbow drop by the NCAA.