JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Former Jaguars employee Amit Patel has admitted to stealing more than $22 million from the team over three years, and federal prosecutors say he used that money to live a “life of luxury” that included lavish trips on private jets.
Patel, 31, is set to be sentenced next week after pleading guilty in December to wire fraud and illegal monetary transactions.
He could face up to 30 years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending at least seven. Patel’s attorneys are arguing for much less.
In a court filing laying out the reasons for the judge to go easy on Patel, the defense offers five sentencing options -- three of which include no prison time. The harshest option his attorneys are asking the judge to consider is one year in prison.
The 26-page document the defense submitted revealed the $22 million theft wasn’t the first time Patel misused company money to fund a gambling addiction.
Patel’s attorney said Patel spent 99% of the money stolen from the Jaguars on online gambling, but according to prosecutors, Patel spent more than $5 million on “personal expenses,” including the trips, a condo, a car, a luxury watch, and Jaguars and sports memorabilia worth tens of thousands of dollars.
A long list of items purchased by Patel, along with photos of him on vacation, were submitted by federal prosecutors on Thursday as part of their sentencing memorandum.
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
But in their arguments against prison time, Patel’s attorneys say that other than a minor drug possession charge, he has no criminal record and he’s suffered many personal hardships, including the death of his father and the murder of his uncle.
The defense also admits in the filing that Patel spent company money on online gambling at a previous job but paid it back.
“While at Deloitte, Mr. Patel had a company AMEX card and used it to incur gambling debts,” the document said. “With his brother’s help, however, he paid the bill back before detection when his brother co-signed a debt consolidation loan in the amount of $16,000.”
Patel’s defense attorneys say admitting all of this is one reason why the judge should be lenient, saying that Patel “....voluntarily surrendered information regarding similar misconduct with a prior employer that had gone undetected. This information would not have been discovered by the government without Mr. Patel’s acknowledgment.”
In recommending a seven-year sentence, prosecutors said that it “would be fair and just in this case, given the immense scope of the defendant’s crimes and his recent efforts to shift the blame to his victim.”
“The defendant was a trusted and valued member of (the) Jaguars organization. He betrayed that trust and stole over $22 million through hundreds of fraudulent transactions, which he skillfully concealed for over three years. He did not need that money. He did not use it to feed his family or care for sick loved ones. He did not donate the loot to a charity or use it to perform good works. He had fun with it. He lived it up – gambling, traveling, and shopping. Under these circumstances, a lengthy prison sentence is warranted,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo.
But the defense argues that the “adverse publicity for this incident” that Patel will “endure” for decades will leave him with “a digital scarlet letter” that will impact his future.
But prosecutors attacked the characterization laid out by Patel’s attorney.
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They noted that Patel took the unusual step of issuing a press release the week before he pleaded guilty.
“The defendant’s press release is a remarkable document. It presumably previews the defendant’s sentencing arguments, which are largely without an evidentiary basis,” prosecutors wrote. “In his press release, the defendant dismissed the notion that he stole and spent the $22 million ‘to live an extravagant lifestyle.’ Instead, he casted himself as a tragic figure who engaged ‘in a horribly misguided effort to pay back previous gambling losses,’ specifically, by stealing even more money and then gambling it in hopes of winning, but ultimately losing. In support of this claim, he alleged that ‘[a]pproximately 99%’ of the money that he stole was lost gambling on the FanDuel and DraftKings websites. This claim – which appears to be a centerpiece of the defendant’s sentencing argument – is deceptive.”
Patel’s press release, prosecutors said, did not disclose that he continued to lead his luxurious lifestyle even after the fraud was discovered and he was fired by the Jaguars.
The week before he pleaded guilty, prosecutors said, he bought a $2,200 Trevor Lawrence jersey using the money he stole.
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 that the only reason his scheme was not detected over the three and a half years 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.”
All of these factors played into the prosecution’s recommended sentence. Patel still faces the possibility of 30 years in prison.