A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee has been accused of stealing more than $22 million from the team by taking advantage of its virtual credit card (VCC) program from 2019 until his termination in February 2023.
According to court filings in Florida’s U.S. District Court in Jacksonville reviewed by The Athletic, Amit Patel has been charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of illegal monetary transaction after he allegedly used the acquired funds to buy things like vehicles, a condominium, a designer watch worth over $95,000, and place bets on online gambling sites.
Patel allegedly used his position overseeing the company’s VCC program to hide the alleged transactions as “reoccurring VCC transactions, such as catering, airfare, and hotel charges, and then duplicated those transactions; he inflated the amounts of legitimate reoccurring transactions; he entered completely fictitious transactions that might sound plausible, but that never actually occurred,” according to the filings.
Prosecutors charge a former Jacksonville Jaguars employee with stealing $22 million from the football team and spending it on a condo, cars, cryptocurrencies, gambling, a $95,000 watch and more. https://t.co/MtokcCeUJQ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 7, 2023
“We can confirm that in February 2023, the team terminated the employment of the individual named in the filing,” the team said in a statement. “Over the past several months we have cooperated fully with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida during their investigation and thank them for their efforts in this case.”
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“As was made clear in the charges, this individual was a former manager of financial planning and analysis who took advantage of his trusted position to covertly and intentionally commit significant fraudulent financial activity at the team’s expense for personal benefit,” the team’s statement added. “This individual had no access to confidential football strategy, personnel or other football information. 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 former NFL employee may be required to forfeit property “in the amount of at least $22,221,454.40, which represents the proceeds of the offense” if convicted, the filing states according to The Athletic. In addition, he may have to forfeit assets “purchased or funded with the proceeds of the offenses and/or involved in an illegal monetary transaction.”