JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Lavish trips on private jets, a $36,000 Scotty Cameron putter used by Tiger Woods during his 1996 U.S. Amateur Championship win, $21 million on online gambling and $2,200 on a Trevor Lawrence game-issued jersey.
Those are just a few of the things federal prosecutors said Amit Patel paid for using the more than $22 million he stole from his former employer, the Jacksonville Jaguars, while living a “life of luxury.”
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 his sentencing memorandum. After pleading guilty to wire fraud and illegal monetary transactions in December, Patel, 31, is set to be sentenced on Tuesday.
Prosecutors are recommending a seven-year sentence for Patel, and 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 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.
In the filing, prosecutors laid out a money trail showing how Patel moved the millions he stole from the team’s virtual credit card program he oversaw to places like FanDuel, DraftKings and his personal PayPal account.
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.
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.”
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Here are some of the places he 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
Photos showed Patel sipping a cocktail at Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, lounging in the ocean at a Formula 1 event in Miami and holding Givenchy shopping bags while in London with the Jaguars.
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.”
But prosecutors attacked the characterization laid out by Patel’s attorney.
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 paid for the Trevor Lawrence jersey using the money he stole.
“The defendant could have been gathering assets or saving money to try to pay some restitution to the Jaguars; instead, he was shopping on the internet, golfing, and getting spa treatments. His actions are contrary to the claim in his press release that ‘[h]e has fully cooperated, and will continue to cooperate, with the Jacksonville Jaguars,’” prosecutors wrote. “He should admit how he actually spent the money he stole and accept responsibility for all of his egregious conduct. To date, he has not.”
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 recommended sentence. Patel still faces the possibility of 30 years in prison.
Shannon Schott, an attorney not associated with the case, said the government is using the statement from Patel’s attorney to make their case for a lengthy prison sentence.
“They’re really emphasizing everything he did when he was stealing this money, and also how sophisticated the stealing was, and that he knew that this was wrong. And he was actually taking steps to cover up for three years what he was doing,” Schott said.
Doctor Justin D’Arienzo is a clinical and forensic psychologist. While he hasn’t treated Patel, he said the behavior detailed in court documents points to a wide range of psychological behavior.
“On the far end, you have somebody that is facing some financial stressor, or they’re in some jam, and then they need to escape it. And they have access to a lot of money. So they take a risk. And then on the far end, you have somebody that maybe is a sociopath, that takes things without guilt,” D’Arienzo said.
Schott said the government seems to be trying to make an example of Patel.
“Even if he’s a first-time offender, it doesn’t matter, because the amount and the sophistication and the length of time that this went on is so great that they’re not going to hold back when it comes to their recommendations for sentencing,” Schott said.
