Nevin Shapiro Is the Caligula of South Florida's Ponzi Empire

Comments (0) By Tim Elfrink Thursday, Dec 16 2010

How much damaging information does he actually have? Only time will tell. NCAA officials told the Herald in August that, if they deem the book legitimate, they'll investigate.

Maria Elena Perez, Shapiro's lawyer, didn't respond to multiple calls and emails from New Times. But his mother, Ronnie, reached in Canada, spoke candidly about the book and her son. "I told him for years he needed to get out of Dade. It's just a little blip on the map full of Cubans... I've hated it for 35 years," she says.

Tim Elfrink

Nevin Shapiro displayed this autographed Hurricanes helmet in his $6 million mansion.

Tim Elfrink

Shapiro's Bay Road mansion offered 180-degree views of Biscayne Bay in back.

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UM should be concerned about her son's book, she says. "There are some people over at UM who are real worried, some really scared people there," she says, chuckling. "He knows some things about some people, I'll tell you that."

Ronnie goes on, her husky, Brooklyn-accented voice rising with emotion. "They don't mean nothing to me down there," she says. "It's a good thing 99 percent of those people know how to throw a ball. You know where they'd be otherwise: Opa-locka, Liberty City, selling crack on the corners. I don't want to sound like a racist, but you know where I'm going with this. Once you're from there, you're always from there."

Shapiro, she says, for once — maybe for the first time — will shake the world by telling the truth.

"He's not in a nice place now, compared to where he was coming from," she says, speaking quietly now. "But every dog has its day. There's a lot of skeletons out there. And they'll all be coming out now."