Jacksonville Jaguars Sue Ex-Employee Who Stole $22M From Team

The NFL Jacksonville Jaguars are suing Amit Patel, their former employee and convicted fraudster.

The former accounts manager for the team stole $22 million from the Florida-based team. Among other luxury lifestyle items, he used the money to fund his fantasy sports addiction at FanDuel.

“Beginning in 2019, though largely occurring in the fall of 2022 and January 2023, Patel operated an elaborate scheme through which he embezzled millions of dollars from the Jaguars by unlawfully utilizing the company’s virtual credit cards (“VCC”) maintained by the Jaguars’ former bank,” the lawsuit says. 

Patel was convicted in late 2023 and has been in prison since March 2024, when he was sentenced to six and a half years. 

Under Florida law, Patel could be on the hook for as much as three times the proceeds of his crime, totaling $66 million. 

The Crime

Patel was convicted of manipulating the Jaguars accounts to fund $22 million to himself, most of which he spent on fantasy sports betting at FanDuel, and to a lesser extent, DraftKings.

Over just eight months of his spree, Patel transferred $20 million into his FanDuel account, and lost the majority. It got to the point where notable high-stakes players in the fantasy sports scene knew of his handle and reputation as a whale, or heavy losing player. But little did they know it was all stolen money.

As well as funding his sports betting problem, Patel also used the stolen funds to purchase sports memorabilia, luxury watches, and vehicles, as well as chartering private jets for his travel. 

That included a golf club used by Tiger Woods, and other sports-related items on which he spent more than $140,000.

The Lawsuit

Some sports analysts have pointed out that this lawsuit could be bad news for FanDuel. 

Presumably, it’s unlikely that the Jaguars will ever get much of their money back from the now-unemployed and incarcerated Patel. Let alone the potential $44 million in extra compensation they could legally demand. 

So why bother?

Well, some speculation is that the Jaguars could broker a deal with Patel for him to sue FanDuel on the grounds it allowed a gambling addict to spend money that was stolen without doing checks. 

Then the Jaguars could recover some of that money from him, via the sportsbook, and let Patel off with a clean slate once he has served his time. 

The Jaguars are unlikely to sue FanDuel directly, even if management sees the bookmaker as a culpable party in allowing Patel to gamble away $20 million of the team’s money. That’s because it could cause drama with the NFL, which receives millions in sponsorship money from leading sports betting operators each year. 

However, if Patel can successfully make a legal argument on those grounds, it’s not impossible that a judge could hold FanDuel liable for at least some of the money he stole to deposit at the platform. 

Unlike many regulated gambling markets globally, most American states don’t have specific regulations to ensure that online gamblers spending large amounts of money are looked at and checked for money laundering or other crimes.