Former Jacksonville Jaguars employee charged with stealing over $22 million

Despite Trevor Lawrence’s ankle injury, the Jacksonville Jaguars have enjoyed a great season thus far. Coach Doug Pederson has the Jags at 8-4, in first place of the AFC South, with the top seed reasonably in sight.

There’s no question Pederson has been able to quickly turn the Jaguars, who were long viewed as a struggling franchise, into contenders. Naturally, having Lawrence land in Jacksonville’s lap as the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 surely helped things along.

While the Jaguars are having plenty of on-field success, now they’re in the news for all the wrong reasons, and it has nothing to do with the players fans root for a on a weekly basis.

Instead, a former team employee has been accused of stealing over $22 million from the Jaguars organization over a four-year period. The employee, Amit Patel, was a former financial worker who manipulated the franchise’s virtual credit program, according to documents available from the U.S. District Court. Patel has since been charged with wire fraud and making illegal monetary transactions.

The theft reportedly occurred from 2019-2023, to which Patel bought items like a designer watch costing over $95,000, two vehicles (a new Tesla Model 3 and Nissan pickup truck), and a condominium, in addition to chartering private jets. He was also placing bets with online gambling sites and purchasing cryptocurrency.

Patel was fired in February of 2023.