Ex-Jaguars employee pleads guilty to charges over team theft،
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A former financial employee of the Jacksonville Jaguars faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines after pleading guilty Thursday in federal court to stealing more than $22 million to the NFL franchise over a four-year period. .
Amit Patel, dressed in a dark suit, burgundy tie and brown shoes, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and illegal monetary transaction in U.S. District Court. He will be sentenced later by a district court judge.
Patel, 31, did not respond to a request for comment. Patel's attorney, Alex King, declined to comment and asked to contact him by email.
Patel was released on a $10,000 signature bond and ordered to surrender his passport, undergo a mental health evaluation, avoid using alcohol or drugs unless prescribed, to submit to a drug test and to have no contact with Jaguars employees unless his attorney is present.
The U.S. Attorney's Office had claimed in a court filing that Patel — who held various titles during his tenure with the Jaguars, including director, financial planning and analysis — used his position as sole supervisor of the franchise's virtual credit card. program to finance lavish personal purchases and conceal his theft.
According to court records, Patel is accused of stealing $22,221,454.40 and using some of that money for purchases that included a condominium in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., a Tesla Model 3 sedan, cryptocurrency, chartering private jets, staying in a luxury hotel, a country club. membership and luxury wristwatches.
Patel told the hearing that he suffered from a “gaming disorder” and saw a therapist weekly for treatment. He also said he underwent treatment for alcohol and substance abuse from March to June of this year.
The filing alleges that Patel became the sole administrator in October 2019 of the VCC program, which is a payment method that functions like a traditional credit card account but without a physical credit card. Some employees were allowed to use the VCC program for business-related purchases and expenses. Patel is accused of duplicating legitimate expenses in an electronic ledger, inflating legitimate transaction amounts, entering fictitious transactions, and then using the money for personal purchases.
The Jaguars fired Patel in February and cooperated with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI in their investigation into Patel's theft. The team said in a statement last week that Patel did not have access to football strategy, personnel or other confidential information and that the team had hired law and accounting firms to conduct “a comprehensive independent review, which concluded that no other employees on the team were involved in or aware of his criminal activity.
King, claimed in a statement that Patel suffered from a “severe gambling addiction” and that “approximately 99 percent of the embezzled funds” were related to gambling losses, almost all of which occurred on FanDuel and DraftKings.
King also said Patel was undergoing treatment for his gambling addiction and founded Round Robin Recovery LLC to help other people with gambling addictions.
Online records of Patel's account on Rotogrinders, a popular daily fantasy sports and betting site that tracks individual player results, as well as several sources familiar with his play show that Patel was a high-volume fantasy sports player and high stakes, known for its racketeering. big losses.
Multiple sources familiar with Patel's account told ESPN that Patel, using the username ParlayPicker, invested nearly $500,000 in fantasy tournaments from the NFL, Major League Baseball, PGA Tour and UFC since 2017. DFS players familiar with the ParlayPicker account told ESPN they think Patel's biggest losses have come in high-stakes three-way contests against elite competitors and with buy-ins higher than $24,000.
The NFL's gaming policy prohibits club and league employees from betting on any sport and participating in daily fantasy sports.
