Feb. 2, 2023 started like every other morning for Amit Patel. He was sitting in his cubicle on the floor flooring of EverBank Stadium, house to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Patel, a supervisor in the group’s monetary division, was closing out the final cycle of bills, as he did at the starting of every month.
When Jaguars chief monetary officer Mark Sirota requested Patel to come back to Sirota’s workplace, he thought it is perhaps to debate a brand new undertaking. But then Patel obtained there and Sirota lowered his voice and requested Patel to close the door behind him. Sirota then informed Patel a delegation from NFL safety was in a set upstairs ready to speak to him.
Sirota escorted Patel via the workplace, then the bowels of the stadium. As they made their option to an elevator, Patel seemed again and noticed a contingent of human relations officers and group safety trailing them. When he arrived on the fourth flooring and stepped into a set, he was met by one among the group’s attorneys and three males in fits, one among whom was sitting behind a laptop computer.
“I already knew they had everything on the computer in front of them. My entire gambling history,” Patel, 31, informed The Athletic in an interview from his legal professional’s workplace in Jacksonville final week.
When the NFL safety group requested the place Patel obtained the cash to position the bets they’d found, he lied. He mentioned it was from household wealth and cryptocurrency. When they requested whether or not they might have entry to his telephone and laptop, he seemed to the Jaguars’ lawyer for recommendation, solely to understand the lawyer was there to guard the group, not him. He handed his units over and the lawyer took him for a stroll round the concourse. As they walked, Patel feverishly calculated what these safety officers may establish as they transferred information from his laptop and telephone.
When his boss later requested him for his password to the firm’s digital bank card program, Patel knew it was over. He was caught.
FBI investigators subsequently found that Patel, over a four-year interval, had embezzled greater than $22 million from the Jaguars by creating fraudulent fees on the membership’s digital bank card and then masking his tracks by sending falsified recordsdata to the group’s accounting division. Patel’s legal professional mentioned the overwhelming majority of what he stole he gambled away by way of on-line sports activities playing websites. The authorities mentioned he additionally used the cash to fund a jet-set life-style and to buy automobiles, a condominium, a designer watch price over $95,000 and different extravagances.
Last Tuesday, in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Patel stood earlier than a choose, voice quivering, and mentioned he was “ashamed” of his actions. The prosecution requested for a sentence of 84 months, emphasizing the scale of his fraud, the media consideration the case acquired and the message it will ship to others who may “steal millions and live like a king.” Patel’s legal professional requested for probation, citing his shopper’s playing habit and subsequent restoration efforts as causes for leniency.
Patel acquired a 78-month sentence.
In his first interview since he pleaded responsible final yr, Patel mentioned that after months of anticipation, dread and unease, he feels a way of aid to lastly face his punishment.
“I’m dealing with the consequences of something that happened a year and a half ago. I’ve been a completely different person since then through my recovery,” Patel mentioned. “I’m dealing with something that’s happened in the past when I was a different person.”
Patel had roughly two dozen pals and household readily available at his sentencing, a few of whom made statements vouching for his character. His older brother mentioned he was the prototypical golden youngster who excelled at sports activities and faculty solely to be derailed by alcohol abuse and playing habit. His highschool instructor mentioned he was a “model student.” His girlfriend insisted he was a very good one who had taken duty for his actions and dedicated to a lifetime of sobriety.
Government attorneys described him as a fabulist who conned his firm and loved the spoils. Court filings included photos of Patel partying at swanky motels, flying on personal planes and flashing costly bottles of champagne. In that submitting, the prosecutor dealing with the case wrote that Patel continued to “enjoy the finer things” even after he was fired. Megha Parekh, the Jaguars chief authorized counsel, issued a blistering evaluation of Patel, stating that his actions invited an inordinate quantity of scrutiny on the group and diverted key sources and time from present staff: “He was our teammate and he betrayed us.”
Those depictions, whereas seemingly in distinction, coexist in Patel’s retelling, and he often toed the line between expressing regret for his actions and ascribing these actions to an issue outdoors his management.
“I was battling with a secret addiction that nobody knew about,” Patel mentioned. “Everyone thought I was doing great, dandy. You know, on Instagram they see you having fun, you’re with your friends and family, but there’s a mental demon inside.”
Patel grew up in a strict family the place his dad and mom, who immigrated from India, anticipated educational excellence from their two sons. He mentioned he was impacted tremendously by two losses earlier in his life: Patel’s father died of a coronary heart assault when Patel was 13, and one among his finest pals died in a automotive accident 9 years later when he was in faculty. By that point, Patel mentioned his ingesting, drug use and playing had been all-consuming.
But Patel additionally had an abundance of affection and help coupled with ambition and alternative. He was, as the authorities legal professional described in courtroom, an instance of the American Dream. Popular and well-liked amongst his classmates. Elected class president at the Paxon School for Advanced Studies in Jacksonville. Captain of his highschool lacrosse group. And he had an entrepreneurial spirit, dabbling in e-commerce and aspect initiatives that suffused him with money and freedom.
Like many individuals his age, Patel was drawn to playing throughout the on-line poker increase of the early aughts and the ubiquity of fantasy sports activities. He mentioned he first skilled the rush of playing on a cruise journey to the Bahamas the summer time earlier than he left for school. The cruise featured a poker event and, although his mother forbade him to enter as a result of he had beforehand squandered cash on on-line poker through the use of her bank card, his stepfather slipped him a $100 invoice.
A crowd shaped round the poker desk and he was in the center of all of it, successful the event and a $2,000 prize. He paid his mom again for a portion of the cruise and purchased his then-girlfriend a necklace. He later posed for an image with the cash splayed out on a desk and made that his Facebook profile avatar.
Patel enrolled at Florida State in 2010 however mentioned the mixture of partying and playing led him to modify from his main of alternative (engineering) to one thing extra manageable (accounting). Poor grades prompted his switch to Flagler College as he prioritized playing over all else. He took a bus to an in-person poker event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, the place he completed fifteenth out of about 1,500 entrants, successful virtually $7,500. But he was in a position to return to FSU for an MBA. Out of school, he went to work for Deloitte, and whereas there he used his company bank card to fund his playing behavior. But he averted hassle as a result of his brother helped him pay it off.
In 2018, he landed his dream job with the Jaguars, a group he grew up supporting. By that time, he’d progressed from taking part in fantasy soccer to betting on baseball by way of offshore accounts to putting wagers on basically something he might. “You wake up in the middle of the night and you’re betting on Turkish women’s volleyball,” he mentioned.
He’d ignore his mother’s calls, overlook to brush his tooth, keep up late into the night time, consistently refreshing his telephone for scores and highlights whereas his girlfriend slept subsequent to him. Once, in Las Vegas, he drove to the Nevada/Arizona border simply so he might place a day by day fantasy sports activities wager, which isn’t permitted in Nevada. When his checking account was low, he’d promote private objects, donate plasma, take out payday loans or rustle up work doing cellphone repairs. There had been instances he’d go to the ATM a number of instances in a day, depositing and depleting.
“The worst part is there’s always a win around the corner,” Patel mentioned. “And so that’s what you’re always chasing.”
In September 2019, Patel, then a mid-level worker with the Jaguars, was in the gap from playing losses, his bank card maxed out. He was drunk, making an attempt to think about a option to dig himself out of debt and feeling the “itch.” That’s when he allowed himself to think about using funds from the firm VCC program he managed.
“I mean, the devil inside me is like let me just deposit $25,000 from the card. I’ll turn it into $50,000. I’ll put the $25,000 back,” Patel mentioned.
Given the stage of attrition and lack of oversight inside the Jaguars’ depleted accounting and finance division, the prospect of getting caught appeared low. In company finance, there’s a idea referred to as the fraud triangle: Opportunity. Incentive. Rationalization. Patel had all three.
The gap deepened as Patel’s playing losses mounted. And so he continued utilizing funds obtained from the Jaguars VCC program to position astronomical bets by way of FanDuel and DraftKings in hopes that he’d win massive and save himself. Patel mentioned his VIP rep at FanDuel would add 10 p.c to his account for each $600,000 he spent, along with entry charges that had been refunded and journey perks he was comped. A spokesperson for FanDuel declined to remark as the firm nonetheless considers the scenario an “ongoing matter.”
In the early days of the scheme, Patel would see an unannounced assembly positioned on his calendar and imagine the group had discovered his subterfuge. As the years handed and his actions went undetected, that worry by no means abated, he mentioned, however he simply couldn’t cease.
He’s undecided what tipped off NFL safety early in 2023. (Employees of NFL groups are forbidden from betting on video games.) But he recounted some brazen strikes he made in the months earlier than his termination. Twice, he wager on the Jaguars – as soon as whereas he was in Kansas City for a sport towards the Chiefs — an $18,000 six-way parlay involving 5 UFC fights and the Jags masking the unfold. (The 5 fights went his approach, he mentioned, however the Jags didn’t cowl.) Later, he mentioned he wager “a few hundred thousand dollars” on a Jaguars-Titans sport, one other loss. He additionally tried to withdraw cash from a wire to position bets via FanDuel, which triggered a notification from the anti-money laundering group at the website. (He mentioned his account was suspended after he unsuccessfully answered questions on the supply of his funds.)
“I was so far in the hole I was like ‘Maybe I can win a million really quick on this game and pay them back,’” he mentioned. “I was desperate.”
In the speedy aftermath of getting fired by the Jaguars, Patel didn’t cease playing. Instead, he continued scrambling to attempt to win and pay the group again. An absurd thought, he acknowledges now, contemplating the sum he owed.
Patel was in rehab by the time the FBI obtained concerned. His legal professional referred him for alcohol and drug abuse, in addition to playing habit. He cooperated with the authorities’s investigation and in December 2023 pleaded responsible to fees of fraud and an unlawful financial transaction.
In the 99 days he spent in rehab, Patel mentioned he felt guilt and disgrace for the ache he prompted his family members, pals and coworkers. But he additionally felt grateful. “I was so glad to be out of that torturous, endless cycle in my head,” he mentioned.
Gambler’s Anonymous works equally to Alcoholics Anonymous. You work the 12 steps. Identify the “character defects” that contribute to habit. Patel nonetheless battles these, with perfectionism and ego surfacing extra prevalently than he would really like.
He bristled at the suggestion that he was a neophyte and traditionally unhealthy gambler, as one report urged. He was bothered by information accounts that just one particular person attended his plea listening to in his protection. (He informed pals and household to not attend, he mentioned.) And he pushes again on the authorities’s assertion that he was pushed solely by greed.
He contends that he purchased some luxurious objects to flip for income to subsidize his playing, whereas additionally acknowledging that he was frittering away cash on a rustic membership membership, spa companies and extra. Though the majority of the cash he stole from the Jaguars ended up with FanDuel or DraftKings, the authorities contends that Patel transferred over $5 million to his PayPal and different monetary accounts.
He admits he loved the trappings that got here with accessing hundreds of thousands of {dollars} however mentioned the value of sure journeys and occasions had been reimbursed by the on-line betting websites, an incentive for him to proceed spending with them: “They just give you this illusion that you’re winning because they’re just making so much money off of you that they need to keep you happy and keep you gambling,” he mentioned.
Patel mentioned he nonetheless has urges to gamble — the most up-to-date one got here a couple of months in the past when he obtained an e mail from the Hard Rock Hotel Casino group, commemorating the opening of its new sportsbook. Patel talked about it in the GA assembly he organized; the group now meets commonly in a neighborhood church.
“Not everyone will get addicted to gambling,” Patel mentioned. “But everyone can get addicted.”
Patel will proceed remedy whereas incarcerated. He is slated to start his sentence inside the subsequent 90 days. His legal professional requested he be positioned at the federal facility closest to his household in Jacksonville. When he will get out, he’ll be placed on a cost plan – $250 a month directed to the Jaguars. Both the prosecuting legal professional and the choose acknowledged he is unlikely to ever pay again the complete sum he stole from the NFL franchise.
Said Patel: “I’ve just got to deal with these consequences and move on with my life and see how much I can use this to help a lot of other people.”
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; images: Don Juan Moore, Julio Aguilar, Perry Knotts, Don Juan Moore / Getty Images; courtesy of U.S. Attorney)
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