iNDICA NEWS BUREAU–
Amit Patel, an Indian American former executive of football team Jacksonville Jaguars, has been accused of swindling $22 million from the team’s treasury to fund his luxury lifestyle, including buying expensive watches, a Tesla Model 3 sedan, and a condominium, and also pay for his chartered flights.
According to court documents filed in the US District Court in Jacksonville, Florida, Patel worked first as a coordinator and then as a manager of financial planning and analysis of the team from 2018 to 2023.
The documents do not name the team, and has been referred to as “Business A”. However, the Jaguars confirmed that they were victims of Patel’s alleged crimes, according to The Athletic.
Patel handled the team’s financial statements and the department’s budget and had access to the club’s Virtual Credit Card (VCC) which is used by certain authorized employees to make business-related purchases and expenses.
Court documents said that the authorized access to the VCC helped Patel, and that he started making fraudulent purchases in 2019. He hid the transactions by manually flagging them as “recurring VCC transactions” such as catering, airfare, hotel fees, etc. and then inflated the amount to forge financial statements and entered an amount that may appear believable but also entered fictitious transactions that never occurred.
He then used this money to place online bets, buy cryptocurrency, purchase luxury watches and spa treatments, buy concert tickets, fund his travel in chartered flights, and buy a Tesla Model 3 sedan and a Nissan pick-up truck. The accused used the swindled money to purchase a condominium in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, court documents said.
“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,” the New York Post reported, quoting the team.
“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 statement read.
He was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of illegal monetary transactions.