Perry Knotts/Getty Images
- A Jaguars ex-employee has been sentenced to 78 months in prison for stealing $22 million from the team.
- Amit Patel, 31, spent almost all of the money on losses on Draft Kings and FanDuel, his lawyers said.
- Prosecutors said Patel also used the cash to buy private flights, luxury items, and cars.
A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee who pleaded guilty to stealing $22 million from the team was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on Tuesday.
Amit Patel, 31, has also been ordered to pay the Jaguars full restitution of the $22,221,454.40 he embezzled while working as the admin for the team's virtual credit card program, said the Middle District of Florida District Attorney's office.
As the program's overseer, Patel made hundreds of fake purchases and transactions irrelevant to the Jaguars' business interests, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors said he covered up the scheme by entering false accounting entries and duplicating legitimate transactions like those for dining and airplane tickets.
Patel's fraud started in September 2019 until he was fired from the Jaguars in February 2023. He pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and making illegal transactions.
The Justice Department accused Patel of using the stolen money to fund private flights, luxury hotel stays, a Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida condominium, a new Tesla Model 3 sedan, and a Nissan pickup truck.
He also placed bets on the sports gambling sites Draft Kings and FanDuel, and bought cryptocurrency and NFTs with his ill-gotten cash, prosecutors said.
Patel's lawyers said in December that he suffered from a gambling addiction and squandered "approximately 99% of the funds misappropriated" on betting losses, the Associated Press reported.
The condo, cars, and other luxury purchases were made through Patel's personal funds, added his lawyers.
But prosecutors said that while Patel "undoubtably loves to gamble and lost the bulk of the money that he stole doing it," he transferred at least $5 million from Draft Kings and FanDuel to his personal accounts.
Prosecutors said Patel also bought a $47,000 golf putter used by Tiger Woods, a $95,000 Patek Philippe wristwatch, and spent $278,000 on private travel, per a sentencing memorandum seen by BI.
Megha Parekh, the Jaguars' chief legal officer, said on behalf of the team at Patel's sentencing that the ex-employee "broke our hearts," ESPN reported.
"We gave him his dream job. We trusted him. We worked with him. We broke bread with him. We went through a pandemic and the highs and lows of the NFL with him," Parekh said, per the outlet.
Patel faced a maximum total sentence of 30 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for an 84-month sentence, but US District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr gave Patel 78 months, or the lower limit of an advised range from a pre-sentencing report.
A lawyer for Patel did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by BI.