![](https://brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Miami.jpg?w=650)
Getty Image
Despite the fact that it continually underperforms on the field, the Miami Hurricanes football program has recruited like gangbusters in recent years.
The primary reason for that, it would seem, is mega-booster John Ruiz, whose LifeWallet company has funded a significant portion of the Canes’ NIL budget. But there have been some major red flags along the way.
Now it appears the chickens have come home roost, as Ruiz told investors Wednesday that there is “significant doubt” about LifeWallet’s ability to continue operating, according to the Miami Herald.
Not only did Ruiz invest millions of dollars into Miami’s NIL program, he also spearheaded a plan to finally build a football stadium on the Hurricanes’ campus.
But there is and was one big hang.
LifeWallet never actually had the amount of money that Ruiz claimed it had.
“The Miami Herald has learned that Ruiz and his health insurance claims company LifeWallet — previously known as MSP Recovery — are the target of federal civil and criminal investigations,” a report claimed in July of 2023. “The ongoing federal probes mark an unprecedented level of trouble for the one-time TV host whose business practices and out-sized lifestyle evoke comparisons to Donald Trump.”
Ruiz once valued LifeWallet at $32 billion and stock traded at $10 a share. It currently trades at 29 cents a share.
LifeWallet projected revenues of $992 million prior to the 2022 fiscal year. In actuality, it took in just $23.4 million from its primary business of recovering incorrectly paid insurance claims according to the Miami Herald.
Ruiz, perhaps more so than any coach or athlete, is the face of Miami athletics. But the same could have been said of former booster Nevin Shapiro at one point, and we all know how that ended.
Maybe the Canes dodge a bullet here. But if history is any indication, things are about to get messy down in Coral Gables.