On Tuesday, former Jacksonville Jaguars employee Amit Patel was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for a $22 million embezzlement scheme he pursued from the NFL team.
Patel pleaded guilty to felony charges of wire fraud and illegal monetary transaction in December.
Jaguars Employee Faces 6 Years Imprisonment
According to a spokesperson in the US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, US District Judge Henry L. Adams sentenced Patel to six-and-a-half years for stealing from the Jaguars through the team's virtual credit card program from September 2019 until February 2023.
Patel was ordered to repay more than $21 million. The Jaguars told CNN that Patel previously worked as the team's financial planning and research manager.
The court filing claimed that he was the sole administrator of the Jaguars' virtual credit card system. A virtual credit card system operates similarly to a regular account without a physical card. According to the prosecution, Patel allegedly created a scheme to steal money without being discovered from 2019 to 2023.
The court documents stated that he used the money to finance an extravagant lifestyle. His fraud covered the cost of sporting tickets, a new Tesla, a Nissan pickup truck, bitcoin, online gambling, private travel and lodging for him and his friends, and a house in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Furthermore, Patel's lawyer, Alex King, denied the claims and said that Patel's lifestyle was funded through legitimate means. King added that Patel was deeply remorseful and apologized for his conduct. He said that his client is undergoing professional therapy for a serious gambling addiction.
Patel Expresses Remorse
Patel told Adams he had been gambling 14 years ago when he was still in high school. He said that he was embarrassed and ashamed.
"I've spent much time reflecting on how I ended up here," he said. "I grew up knowing right from wrong, and I know my conduct was wrong."
Patel always thought the next big win would solve his problems, but he lost instead. Furthermore, he admitted to the judge that he made a terrible decision draining his bank account. He claimed it had begun small and snowballed, and he had been buying and selling everything to make some money.
In March last year, the month after the Jaguars sacked Patel, King included a redacted page from a University of Florida treatment center in his pre-sentencing petitions on his behalf. Diagnoses for disorders related to alcohol consumption, gambling, stimulants, and marijuana were noted on the website.
According to the defense document, Patel, who received his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Jacksonville's Paxon School of Advanced Studies, had also used the American Express account of his previous employer, the consulting company Deloitte, without authorization.
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