The imprisoned former Jacksonville Jaguars employee convicted of stealing $22 million from the team is now suing FanDuel for $250 million.
Amit Patel claims the online sports book ‘exploited’ his gambling addiction while ignoring responsible gaming and anti-money laundering protocols. The former Jaguars financial manager claims he exhibited signs of being a problem gambler, but FanDuel still incentivized him to continue betting on daily fantasy sports, resulting in his decision to transfer $20 million to the company.
According to Tuesday’s filing obtained by DailyMail.com, FanDuel gave Patel $1.1 million in credits, not to mention extravagant trips to the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff championship game and the Masters.
‘The goal of the suit is a fair apportionment of responsibility among all responsible parties,’ Patel’s attorney, Matthew Litt, told DailyMail.com in a statement. ‘The suit certainly does not contend that Amit is blameless. But right now, Amit is facing 100% of the consequences for what happened while FanDuel is facing none — despite FanDuel’s very active role in Amit’s gambling disorder.
‘The objective is not just to balance things out in Amit’s case, but to stop FanDuel from actively enticing addicted gamblers in the future.
Amit Patel, a former Jaguars financial manager, was sentenced to 78 months in prison
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Ex-Jags employee convicted of stealing $22m was ‘legendarily bad gambler’
Patel pleaded to wire fraud and illegal monetary transaction in March. He admittedly stole $22 million from the Jaguars over 3.5 years through a virtual credit card system the team used for expenses. He was ultimately sentenced to 6.5 years in prison and is currently incarcerated at Williamsburg federal prison in South Carolina.
A FanDuel spokesman declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.
Patel’s VIP host at FanDuel, Brett Krause, is mentioned extensively in Tuesday’s filing.
The two allegedly communicated as many as 100 times a day between 2021 and 2023 – sometimes, even when Patel wasn’t actively gambling.
‘On several occasions, Defendants contacted Plaintiff through Krause on a day he was not gambling to find out why he was not gambling,’ read the filing.
Other times, Patel claims in the lawsuit, FanDuel offered him free contest entries if he placed the maximum of 150 bets.
Patel, 31, worked as a financial manager for the Jaguars from 2018 until February 2023
The enticements Patel received from FanDuel allegedly included ‘lavish trips, event tickets, and other gifts,’ not to mention approximately $1,107,883 in FanDuel credit.
One enticement called for Patel to be given $60,000 for every $600,000 in deposits he placed with FanDuel. What’s more, the $60,000 credit was paid to Patel in three smaller instalments to help him avoid any oversight from the team’s compliance personnel.
This enticement was specifically created for Patel, according to the lawsuit.
FanDuel was also aware that Patel was an employee of an NFL team and therefore not permitted to gamble on the league, his attorney claims in the filing.
The Jaguars sued Patel in Florida state court for $66.6 million in damages. The club seeks to have FanDuel repay the losses.
