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Michael DiRocco, ESPN Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A former Jacksonville Jaguars financial employee faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine after he pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to stealing more than $22 million from the NFL franchise over a four-year period.
Amit Patel, wearing a dark suit, burgundy tie and brown shoes, pleaded guilty to felony charges of wire fraud and illegal monetary transaction in United States District Court. He will be sentenced by a District Court judge at a later date.
Patel, 31, did not respond to a request for comment. Patel’s attorney, Alex King, declined to comment and said to contact him via email.
Patel was released on a $10,000 signature bond and was ordered to surrender his passport, undergo a mental health evaluation, avoid using alcohol or drugs unless prescribed, submit to drug testing, and not have any contact with any Jaguars employees unless his attorney was present.
The United States Attorney’s office had claimed in a court filing that Patel — who held various titles during his tenure with the Jaguars, including most recently manager, financial planning and analysis — used his position as the sole overseer of the franchise’s virtual credit card program to fund lavish personal purchases and cover up his theft.
According to the court filing, 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, Florida, a Tesla Model 3 sedan, cryptocurrency, chartering private jets, luxury hotel stays, a country club membership and luxury wristwatches.
Patel said during the hearing he has a “gambling disorder” and is seeing a therapist weekly for treatment. He also said he underwent treatment for alcohol and substance abuse from March to June this year.
The filing alleges 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. Certain 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 amounts of legitimate transactions, entering fictitious transactions and then using the money for personal purchases.
The Jaguars fired Patel in February and have been cooperating 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 Patel had no access to confidential football strategy, personnel or other football information and that the team hired law and accounting firms to conduct “a comprehensive independent review, which concluded that no other team employees were involved in or aware of his criminal activity.”
King, has claimed in a statement that Patel suffers from a “serious gambling addiction” and that “approximately 99% of the misappropriated funds” were related to gambling losses, almost all of which occurred on FanDuel and DraftKings.
King also said Patel has been receiving treatment for his gambling addiction and founded Round Robin Recovery LLC to help others with a gambling addiction.
Online records of Patel’s account with Rotogrinders, a popular daily fantasy sports and bettor site that tracks individual players’ results, as well as multiple sources familiar with his play show that Patel was a high-volume, high-stakes fantasy sports player known for racking up big losses.
Multiple sources familiar with Patel’s account told ESPN that Patel, using the username ParlayPicker, put nearly $500,000 into fantasy tournaments on the NFL, Major League Baseball, the PGA Tour and the UFC since 2017. DFS players familiar with the ParlayPicker account told ESPN they believed Patel’s biggest losses came from high-stakes, three-man contests against elite competition and had buy-ins upward of $24,000.
The NFL’s gambling policy prohibits club and league employees from gambling on any sport and from participating in daily fantasy sports.
Source: www.espn.com