NCS
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A former employee of the Jacksonville Jaguars has been accused of stealing more than $22 million from the NFL team to fund a lavish lifestyle, in accordance to courtroom paperwork filed in US District Court this week.
The courtroom submitting says Amit Patel used the cash to fund on-line playing, pay for personal journey and lodging for himself and buddies in addition to sporting tickets, purchase a brand new Tesla automobile, Nissan pickup truck, buy cryptocurrency and purchase a property in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
He can also be alleged to have purchased a Patek Philippe Nautilus watch – value over $95,000 – paying the complete worth with “proceeds of his fraud scheme.”
According to the courtroom paperwork, Patel is accused of wire fraud and unlawful financial transaction, stealing hundreds of thousands through the team’s digital bank card (VCC) system over a four-year interval.
Patel is accused of stealing the cash from a company referred to as “Business A,” however the Jaguars confirmed to NCS Sport that that they had employed Patel and have been the sufferer of his alleged crimes.
“We can confirm that in February 2023, the team terminated the employment of the individual named in the filing,” the team stated in a press release despatched to NCS.
“Over the previous a number of months we’ve got cooperated absolutely with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida throughout their investigation and thank them for his or her efforts on this case.
“As was made clear within the prices, this particular person was a former supervisor of monetary planning and evaluation who took benefit of his trusted place to covertly and deliberately commit vital fraudulent monetary exercise on the team’s expense for private profit.
“This particular person had no entry to confidential soccer technique, personnel or different soccer data.
“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.”
NCS has reached out to Patel’s legal professionals for remark.
In the submitting, Patel is alleged to have been the only administrator for the Jaguars’ VCC system. A VCC system works equally to a conventional bank card account, however with no bodily card.
Between September 2019 and February 2023 – when he was fired by the team – it’s alleged that Patel created an elaborate scheme to siphon cash whereas avoiding detection.
“For example, to hide his fraudulent VCC transactions, the defendant identified legitimate reoccurring VCC transactions, such as catering, airfare, and hotel charges, and then duplicated those transactions,” in accordance to the the courtroom paperwork.
“He inflated the amounts of legitimate reoccurring VCC transactions; he entered completely fictious transactions that might sound plausible, but that never actually occurred; and he moved legitimate VCC chargers from upcoming months into the month of the integration file that was immediately due to the accounting department.”
Patel waived his proper to an indictment and the case will proceed based mostly on the sworn data filed by federal prosecutors.
NCS’s Sara Smart and Jacob Lev contributed to this report.