Amit Patel sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for stealing $22M from Jags, living 'life of luxury'

"We gave him his dream job," Jaguars senior vice president and chief legal officer Megha Parekh said when reading a statement from the team. "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. He betrayed us.

DiRocco noted Patel oversaw the Jaguars' virtual credit card program and stole more than $22 million from the team over the course of 3.5 years. Court documents revealed he transferred approximately $20 million to FanDuel and $1 million to DraftKings while also using some of the money on things such as Apple products and private jet travel.

ESPN's David Purdum reported in December that Patel "was a high-volume, high-stakes daily fantasy sports player known for racking up big losses."

One daily fantasy player told Purdum that Patel, who played under the username "ParlayPicker," was "the biggest loser ever on FanDuel," with another person saying "he was legendarily bad."

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10112741-ex-jaguars-employee-amit-patel-gets-65-years-in-jail-for-stealing-22m-from-nfl-team

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2024/03/12/how-much-time-will-amit-patel-spend-in-prison-for-living-life-of-luxury-with-stolen-jags-money/

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Former Jaguars employee Amit Patel was sentenced Tuesday to 6.5 years in federal prison after he admitted to stealing more than $22 million from the team over three years.

Federal prosecutors say Patel, 31, used the stolen millions to live a “life of luxury” that included lavish trips on private jets, a country club membership, a luxury watch, and Jaguars and sports memorabilia worth tens of thousands of dollars. They asked the court to sentence Patel to seven years in prison.

But Patel’s attorneys argued that the vast majority of the money stolen from the Jaguars fueled Patel’s online gambling addiction and asked for a lighter sentence.

The judge sentenced Patel to 78 months in prison plus three years of supervised release following his prison time.

Here are some of the places Patel 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