Former Jaguars employee gets 6½ years for embezzlement

Former Jaguars employee Amit Patel was sentenced Tuesday to 6½ years in federal prison after he admitted to stealing more than $22 million from the team over three years.

Federal prosecutors say Patel, 31, used the stolen millions to live a “life of luxury” that included lavish trips on private jets, a condo, a car, a luxury watch, and Jaguars and sports memorabilia worth tens of thousands of dollars. They wanted Patel to spend a minimum of seven years behind bars.

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But Patel’s attorneys argued that 99% of the money stolen from the Jaguars fueled Patel’s online gambling addiction. They asked for one year of prison time or less.

The judge sentenced Patel to 78 months with three years of supervised release after his prison time.

Patel, who pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and illegal monetary transactions, could have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Patel spent more than $5 million of the stolen money on “personal expenses.” They released a long list of items purchased by Patel, along with photos of him on vacation.

Here are some of the places Patel made the largest purchases, in approximate amounts, according to prosecutors:

Restaurants/Bars: $25,000.
Financial/cryptocurrency: $2,100,000.
Individuals: $1,000,000.
The Golf Auction LLC: $201,000.
eBay: $140,000.
Ponte Vedra Inn & Club: $78,000.
Entertainment: $300,000 (including $69,000 on Ticketmaster and $63,000 on StubHub).
FBO Jets: $78,800.
Hotels.com: $40,000.
Delta: $30,000.
Vrbo: $17,500.
Legal Fees: $275,000.
Tesla: $50,000.
BestBet: $34,000.

The scheme

Prosecutors said Patel used his role as the administrator for the Jaguars’ virtual credit card program to make hundreds of purchases and transactions with no legitimate business purpose. Then, to hide and continue to operate the scheme, he created and emailed falsified accounting records to Jaguars representatives, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Patel transferred over $17 million straight from the Jaguars VCC account to his PayPal account and directly transferred another $2.8 million and $1 million to FanDuel and DraftKings, respectively.

Now all of that money is gone.

Patel’s attorney said Patel had a gambling addiction, and ESPN reported that Patel was known as “the biggest loser ever on FanDuel.”

Prosecutors noted that Patel claimed the only reason his scheme was not detected over the 3½ he was doing it was because nobody at the Jaguars reviewed the credit card statements or adequately supervised him.

“This is victim-blaming at its worst,” prosecutors said. “As the MBA-trained, financial professional and the administrator of his employer’s credit card program, the defendant was the one minding the till. He was best positioned to spot the fraud. He had an obligation to structure the program to prevent losses. Instead, using insider information, he identified a vulnerability and exploited it. He stole from the company hundreds of times and went to elaborate lengths to cover it up for several years.”