A former employee of the Jacksonville Jaguars, one of the thirty-two teams in the American football league, the NFL, is accused of stealing more than 22 million dollars from the team over four years. The story was reconstructed and told last week by the sports website of The Athletic and since then it has been enriched with details that attempt to answer the question that is being asked the most: how was it possible?
The Jaguars are a second-tier team in the NFL and have never won a Super Bowl, but for some years they have been working hard to relaunch themselves, especially after being able to select the best player from colleges in 2021, quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Even in the absence of great successes, they are still valued at 4 billion dollars and are owned by the billionaire of Pakistani origins Shahid Khan, one of the richest men in the world.
Amit Patel worked in their finance department from 2018 to 2022 overseeing the financial statements and budgets of the various departments. During his time at the Jaguars he was also involved in the introduction of a virtual credit card system to simplify and make more secure transactions made by employees. Just his position within the finance department, he writes The Athleticwould have allowed him to carry out the fraud of which he is accused in a totally undisturbed manner for approximately four years.
According to documents filed in the United States District Court of Jacksonville (Florida), which is handling the case, during this period of time Patel would have used the embezzled funds «to gamble, buy a condominium in Ponte Vedra Beach, pay personal trips for himself and his friends (including chartering private jets and staying in luxury hotels and private residences), purchasing a Tesla Model 3, a Nissan pickup, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrencies, electronic devices , sports memorabilia, spa treatments, tickets to concerts and sporting events, home furnishings, luxury wristwatches (including one for $95,000) and a membership to a country club in Florida.”
Patel would have succeeded by duplicating a long series of transactions identified as business expenses (catering, airline tickets, hotels) that were completely fictitious but plausible, at least at first glance, and already in themselves inflated compared to their usual cost.
What former Jaguars employee Amit Patel allegedly used the $22 million he stole from the team to purchase:
◽️A condo
◽️A new Tesla Model 3
◽️A Nissan pickup truck
◽️A $95,000 watch
◽️Cryptocurrency
◽️NFTs
◽️A country club membershipDetails: pic.twitter.com/HzTEdWmlR2
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 7, 2023
«This individual was a former manager who took advantage of his position of trust to secretly and intentionally commit significant fraudulent financial activity at the expense of the team for his personal benefit. However, he did not have access to the sporting part and therefore to confidential, personal documents or other information regarding the team’s activities” the Jaguars said. Precisely this last point would have allowed Patel to operate undisturbed until his dismissal last February. In fact, if he had manipulated the accounts of the sporting part, and not just those of the purely management part, the NFL’s rigid financial controls on the sporting costs of the championship teams would not have allowed him to continue for long.
The Athletic He’s spoken to people who work or have worked in the financial sector of professional sports teams, and they all seem to be of the opinion that Patel was in the right place at the right time. In fact, at that time the financial department of the Jaguars was short of staff due to a series of immediate changes and in this context Patel would also have obtained a position, that of manager of the new virtual credit card system, which did not include direct checks on the his job: he basically controlled himself.
Patel is accused of fraud and denies having purchased some assets in his possession with the money stolen from the Jaguars, but apart from this he does not seem to have much room to defend himself. According to the US press, he will plead guilty at the next hearing to quickly close the matter with a discount on the sentence.
– Read also: The college football espionage case
2023-12-13 15:57:11
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