March 20 :
Amit Patel, a former employee of the Jacksonville Jaguars, received a sentence of more than six years in prison for wire fraud and participating in an unauthorised financial transaction. The Indian American, who entered a guilty plea in December, acknowledged that during his three and a half years as the Jaguars' virtual credit card programme supervisor, he stole $22,221,454.40 from the team. A press release from the Department of Justice states that he will serve out his sentence, pay $21,132,454 in restitution, and be placed on supervised release for three years. Patel got more from the Jaguars than that, but he had previously repaid roughly $1 million while he had possession of it.
When Patel joined the Jaguars in 2018, he was the only administrator of the virtual credit card (VCC) system used by the organisation. Court records show that he made hundreds of illegitimate business-related purchases and transactions using his position. Then, he made accounting files with multiple fraudulent and misleading entries and forwarded them to Jaguars' accounting department in order to conceal and carry out the scheme. September 2019 saw the start of these fraudulent transactions, which lasted until February 2023, when he was dismissed by the Jaguars.
He utilised all or part of the money earned from this scam to finance bets on internet gambling sites, buy a condo in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, pay for friends' and his own personal travel, buy a new Tesla Model 3 sedan and Nissan pickup truck, pay a criminal defence law firm, and pay for special memberships. On his tax returns, he failed to disclose any of this illegal revenue.
He moved almost $20 million to FanDuel and $1 million to DraftKings, and he spent the remaining proceeds of the theft on a number of other purchases, such as almost $600,000 at Apple and over $40,000 at Amazon and Best Buy put together. Additionally, he moved $5 million to his PayPal account and other personal accounts from his FanDuel and DraftKings accounts.
Patel stated to the court at the hearing that he was "embarrassed, shamed, and disappointed by my actions." He informed the judge he was looking for treatment for his gambling addiction and that he had been clean for about a year. "I can never really express my sincere regret to everyone I have harmed with my actions."
Alex King, the defence lawyer, countered that his client, who is 31 years old, is an emotionally damaged gambler who has come clean about his mistakes and needs assistance in controlling a diagnosed disease. In his own sentencing brief, King informed the judge that "Mr. Patel will need continued intervention and treatment to bring about a permanent improvement in his condition," pointing out that there is no treatment programme for gambling addiction offered by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Megha Parekh, senior vice president and chief legal officer of the Jaguars, read a statement on the team's behalf in the interim. He got his ideal job from us. We had faith in him. He collaborated with us. Together, we shared a piece of bread. With him, I experienced both the highs and lows of the NFL and a pandemic, according to Parekh. He deceived us. We do not rejoice at his punishment. It was originally said that Patel did not have access to football knowledge and that no other team members were involved in Patel's activities. "Make no mistake, Amit broke our hearts."
For wire fraud and illicit financial transactions, federal prosecutors had sought a seven-year sentence; however, in court documents filed last week, Patel's lawyer, Alex King, had requested penalties ranging from probation to one year in jail.
