The Jacksonville Jaguars employee accused of defrauding the franchise for over $22.2 million may have had a motive for stealing that much money.
Amit Patel, the 31-year-old employee, was a high-volume, high-stakes daily fantasy sports player who lost significant money playing, according to David Purdum of ESPN. Records show that Patel put nearly $500,000 into daily fantasy tournaments starting in 2017.
Patel was widely known within the fantasy sports world for making preventable mistakes that high-stakes pros never make. One DFS player told Purdum that Patel was “legendarily bad,” while another suggested Patel occasionally failed to enter lineups prior to deadlines even in tournaments with a $3,000 buy-in.
Patel, a former financial employee with the Jaguars, was charged last week with wire fraud and illegal monetary transaction. He allegedly manipulated the organization’s virtual credit card program to steal more than $22 million, which he was accused of spending on a condominium, a Tesla, private jets, and other luxuries. Patel’s attorney, Alex King, had disputed that Patel used the stolen money to fund his lifestyle, but did so in a “horribly misguided effort to pay back previous gambling losses.”
The Jaguars confirmed at the time of Patel’s charging that they had fired him in February. He is expected to plead guilty to the charges in federal court on Thursday.
