The Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team is suing Amit Patel, 31, in an effort to claw back a portion of the $22 million he embezzled from the team while working as one of their top accountants. Patel has already admitted his role in the scheme and was sentenced in December to six years in federal prison for his actions.
For several years, Patel used a virtual credit card (VCC) issued in the team’s name to fund some extremely high risk, high stakes daily fantasy sports (DFS) play. Unfortunately, for all involved, Patel was a legendarily bad DFS players. In a report on Patel’s DFS habit, ESPN.com spoke to Drew Crawford, a well-known DFS player who described Patel’s emergence on the scene under the user name ParlayPicker saying, “He came out of nowhere. Usually in our circle of DFS guys, we kind of know the identities of the guys who were playing at extreme volume. They’ve been around for a while. But with this guy, I remember having side conversations with some of my friends, who were like, ‘Who is this guy? And what is he doing?'”
Other, unnamed sources quoted by ESPN.com weren’t quite as kind in describing Patel’s play habits adding, “He was legendarily bad.” That same unnamed player also suggested that Patel was the “biggest loser in FanDuel history.”
Patel’s lawyers acknowledged his downward spiral at his sentencing in December telling the sentencing judge, “Mr. Patel did not use the Jaguars’ VCC to fund his lifestyle, but in a horribly misguided effort to pay back previous gambling losses that utilized the Jaguars’ VCC program,.
While the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t holding out hope for any huge chunk of the pilfered $22 million, they will be able to seize Patel’s person assets if the suite is successful.