A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee is accused of stealing more than $22 million from the team from September 2019 through February 2023 by using a virtual credit card to buy vehicles, a condo and other luxury items.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida charged Amit Patel with one count of wire fraud and one count of illegal monetary transaction in a court filing Tuesday.
At the time of the alleged offenses, Mr. Patel was a financial manager for an organization called “Business A” in the filing.
The Jaguars confirmed in a statement to The Athletic on Wednesday that they were the “Business A” that employed Mr. Patel. He started work for the team in 2018 and was featured in its media guides from 2018 to 2022, according to the Associated Press.
As part of his duties, Mr. Patel was the sole administrator of a virtual credit card program for the organization. Mr. Patel created new program accounts, approved new cards and requested changes to how much credit was available for each card. Mr. Patel also classified all of the card transactions in the team’s ledger.
The prosecutor’s office contends that Mr. Patel hid personal purchases made on his own virtual credit card.
Mr. Patel is accused of using team funds to buy a Tesla Model 3 sedan, a Nissan pickup truck, a condo in Florida, cryptocurrency, electronics, sports memorabilia, furniture, concert, airline and sports tickets, spa treatment, a country club membership, hotel bookings and a Patek Phillipe watch worth more than $95,000.
Mr. Patel is also alleged to have used some proceeds to gamble online and to hire a criminal defense lawyer on retainer.
To match the amount on the team ledger, Mr. Patel purportedly duplicated legitimate recurring transactions like catering, hotels and airfare, entered fake transactions that sounded plausible and moved legitimate transactions from later months up to filings that were due to the accounting department.
Mr. Patel’s attorney filed a waiver of indictment, allowing the case to move forward via Tuesday’s information filing. If found guilty, Mr. Patel will have to forfeit at least $22,221,454.40 in property, along with the condo, Tesla sedan and Patek Philippe watch.
No other team employees were involved in the alleged scheme, according to the Jaguars.
“We can confirm that in February 2023, the team terminated the employment of the individual named in the filing. … The team engaged experienced 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,” the team told The Athletic.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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