(CNN) -- The University of Miami says it's cooperating with an inquiry into claims by an jailed former booster that he spent millions on improper gifts, distraction and travel for Hurricanes athletes.
"We will vigorously pursue the truth, wherever that route may lead, and I have insisted upon complete, genuine, and perspicuous cooperation with the NCAA from our staff and students," the school's chancellor, Donna Shalala wrote in an open letter Wednesday.
Shalala said she was "upset, disheartened and saddened" at the allegations leveled by Nevin Shapiro, a onetime Miami merchant now serving a 20-year federal jail term for fraud. Shapiro told Yahoo! Sports that he showered dozens of Miami players with cash and jewelry, paid restaurant and nightclub tabs and supplied prostitutes over one 8-year duration -- and that several advisers were conscious of the play.
Shapiro was captured in 2010 ashore charges of overseeing a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors eventually determined had totaled $930 million. He pleaded criminal to securities fraud and money laundering that September, and his accusations against Miami were part of his approval to cooperate with prosecutors, his lawyer told CNN's "Newsroom."
"They inquired him to collaborate and come clean approximately what he did in his case and what other asset he had done with his money, which was really investor money," the lawyer, Maria Elena Perez, said. "And that's while entire of these matters regarding his relationship with the University of Miami and his financial relationship with the athletes came to be."
Charles Robinson, who interviewed Shapiro for Yahoo,
######## Oakley Sunglasses! Sports, shrieked Shapiro "a mingled bag as a human being," yet documents and former players have backed up some of his allegations.
"I calculate that he did it because he felt favor it was someone that, you understand, would not be stopped -- it would not be discovered," Robinson told CNN. "And frankly,
Discount Oakley Sunglasses, I don't meditation he saw the injury in it, showing guys a good period and doling out benefits that he thought they deserved anyway because they're producing millions of dollars playing football for the University of Miami."
The NCAA, which regulates institute amusements, said it has been investigating Shapiro's demands as 5 months. NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a written statement that whether true, the allegations show the need as "serious and fundamental alteration" in college sports, primarily regarding the behaviour of boosters and agents.
The Hurricanes open their football season September 5 against Maryland. Head Coach Al Golden, who was elected to guide the crew in December, told correspondents ahead train Wednesday that he ambitioned to clear up the matter "for rapidly as we can."
"This is a quite difficult issue apparently,
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"It's truly important apt comprehend that we have a lot of guys in that closet apartment that do things the right way, that get cracking excellent families and have made nice determinations," he joined.