Former Jacksonville Jaguars finance manager Amit Patel claims that the $22 million he stole from the NFL franchise and lost at gambling constituted "illegal borrowing."

Speaking to CNN from FPC Montgomery, a low-security prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama, Patel explained how his gambling addiction got out of hand and caused him to spend the majority of the Jaguars' money on FanDuel's daily fantasy sports (DFS) platform.

"What I did was illegally borrow money by using the Jaguars company credit card. The little voice in my head was like, ‘Hey, just use the credit card. We’ll win some money. We’ll put it back, and no one will ever know,’” Patel told CNN’s Nick Watt.

Patel also indulged in high-end purchases, such as Tiger Woods' 1996 putter. He spent over $40,000 at Amazon and Best Buy, almost $600,000 at Apple, and $78,000 on private plane charters. He also paid $265,000 for a condo in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Found guilty of fraud

After entering a guilty plea to wire fraud and participating in an illicit financial transaction in a federal court, he was given a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence in March 2024.

Patel was the only administrator of the Jacksonville Jaguars' virtual payment card system from 2018 to 2023.

He stole precisely $22,221,454.40 from the program at that time by fabricating hundreds of transactions, either by copying real charges or by making up new ones.

The state of Florida has filed more charges against him as of July 2025, which could greatly lengthen his sentence. He is accused of six different offenses, all of them include the theft of more than $100,000. According to state legislation, the maximum sentence for each count is thirty years in jail.

FanDuel is sued by Patel

In the meantime, Patel is suing FanDuel for $250 million in a civil lawsuit, claiming that the massive sports betting company took advantage of his addiction.

According to the lawsuit, FanDuel "relentlessly" encouraged his gambling through regular interactions with a VIP host and neglected to report suspicious activities. The operator has not addressed the case in public.

According to court records, one DFS regular called Patel the "biggest loser ever on FanDuel." He was mandated to pay $21.1 million in reparations to the Jaguars in addition to his prison term; the team is looking into the potential of recovering the money through FanDuel.