Oh My Fraud

Gambling is often a factor when a person perpetrates a fraud, sometimes to a shocking degree. Caleb and Greg discuss one such case involving a finance professional who went to extraordinary lengths to change his bad luck.



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CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS

Greg Kyte, CPA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregkyte
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkyte/

Caleb Newquist
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cnewquist
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebnewquist/

Email us at ohmyfraud@earmarkcpe.com

1-800-GAMBLER is the phone number for the National Problem Gambling Helpline. It serves as a resource for individuals who may be struggling with problem gambling or gambling addiction, or their loved ones.

Sources: 
How one ‘super basic’ man stole $22M from his hometown Jaguars and became ‘the biggest loser ever on FanDuel’ — News4JAX
Private jets, gambling and a Trevor Lawrence jersey: A detailed look at what Amit Patel paid for with stolen Jags money — News4JAX
The Jaguars’ $22 million question: How did four years of theft go undetected? — New York Times
Ex-Jaguars employee Amit Patel sentenced to prison for fraud — ESPN
Ex-Jags employee gambled with company card at former job — ESPN
Middle District of Florida | Former Jacksonville Jaguars Employee Sentenced To More Than Six Years For Embezzling In Excess Of $22 Million — DOJ
​​Trevor Lawrence — Spotrac.com

  • (00:00) - Every Kid Dreams of Becoming a Professional Athlete
  • (01:16) - Listener Shoutouts and Reviews
  • (02:54) - Personal Anecdotes on Homeownership
  • (07:42) - Introducing Amit Patel's Story
  • (08:47) - Amit Patel's Gambling and Career
  • (13:14) - Amit Patel's is Hired By The Jacksonville Jaguars
  • (22:20) - Amit's Fraudulent Scheme Unveiled
  • (22:35) - Duplicating Transactions for Personal Gain
  • (23:44) - Extravagant Purchases with Stolen Money
  • (26:12) - Living a Double Life
  • (29:59) - Caught by FanDuel
  • (33:46) - Legal Consequences and Sentencing
  • (35:15) - Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts
  • (44:19) - Outro and Contact Information

Creators & Guests

Host
Caleb Newquist
Writer l Content at @GustoHQ | Co-host @ohmyfraud | Founding editor @going_concern | Former @CCDedu prof | @JeffSymphony board member | Trying to pay attention.
Host
Greg Kyte, CPA
Mega-pastor of @comedychurch and the de facto worlds greatest accounting cartoonist.

What is Oh My Fraud?

"Oh My Fraud" is an irreverent podcast from CPA/comedian Greg Kyte and blogger/former CPA Caleb Newquist.

The two come together to unpack their favorite frauds and explore the circumstances, psychology, and interpersonal dynamics involved. They also fully indulge in victim-blaming the defrauded widows, orphans, infirm and feeble-minded—because who can resist?

If you fancy yourself a trusted advisor—or prefer your true crime with spreadsheets instead of corpses—listen to this show to learn what to watch out for to keep your clients, your firm, and even yourself safe.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Greg Kyte: Every kid has daydreams about becoming a professional athlete and making an insane amount of money for playing a game, but it's extremely unlikely that that will ever be anything more than just a daydream. What those kids need to know. Listen, those whippersnappers need to know that they should give up their pro athlete dreams and instead earn their MBA and get hired by a professional sports team, because then they can embezzle way more money than they [00:00:30] ever would have earned as a pro football player in the first place. And the risk of concussion from embezzling money is so much lower than playing linebacker.

Earmark CPE: If you'd like to earn CPE credit for listening to this episode, visit earmark Cpcomm. Download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate. Continuing education has never been so easy. And now on to the episode. [00:01:00]

Greg Kyte: Hello and welcome to Oh My Fraud, a true crime podcast where our victims lose their shirts but typically don't lose their lives. I'm Greg Kite.

Caleb Newquist: And I'm Caleb Newquist.

Greg Kyte: Uh, Caleb, uh, before we get into it, first off, uh, want to give a shout out to listener Zach Garretson? Uh, because he's the guy who initially sent us the info on the story that we're going to be talking about on today's [00:01:30] episode. So, uh, thanks, Zach. Also, Caleb, if you don't mind, uh, I'd love to read a quick, uh, review.

Caleb Newquist: I don't mind at all.

Greg Kyte: I knew I knew you wouldn't, uh, this one comes from a listener whose screen name is Robin. Like the sidekick and Robin for short. Uh, wrote I needed something to listen to on my afternoon walks and thought it would be good for review since I'm going for [00:02:00] an accounting degree at 30. Turns out it's just a fun and informative podcast. Super funny, and my wife likes it too. Now that I forced her to listen to it when we drove to Disney, ten out of ten would recommend. If you like. Oh my fraud, because you were forced by your spouse to listen to it for ten hours straight. Please take a minute to write us a review. You can even leave us a review on your phone while being forced to listen to our podcast.

Caleb Newquist: Also, if your firm is looking for in-house [00:02:30] ethics or fraud training, that doesn't suck. We also do that.

Greg Kyte: We also do keynote addresses at events and conferences. And if you think we swear too much for your event, don't worry, we can make this shit clean enough for a fast and testimony meeting at the Mormon church.

Caleb Newquist: If you would like info on pricing and availability, send us an email at Omi fraud at earmark cpe.com.

Greg Kyte: So, Caleb, changing subjects? Yes. Uh, I would like to know if there is anything [00:03:00] that you wish you were really, really good at. But despite your best efforts to be really good at it, you still suck at whatever this thing. Like. You know what I'm talking about. Like almost you have a passion for something, but you just go. I also don't have the required skills or aptitude for whatever fill in the blank is.

Caleb Newquist: I understand the assignment. Yeah. And I would say home ownership. [00:03:30] I think.

Greg Kyte: Uh, home ownership.

Caleb Newquist: Home ownership.

Greg Kyte: You just have a hard time owning a home.

Caleb Newquist: Well, the everything that comes with the ownership, like the like the handiness. Oh, you know. Yeah. Like, I've been a homeowner. I've been a homeowner for, I don't know, five, six years now, probably a little bit longer, but maybe like seven, eight years. I don't even know. But I'd like to think that I've been trying. I'd like to think that I've been open minded about, you know, being a homeowner. Okay. Uh, but I just I haven't really taken to it. You know, there's [00:04:00] a few things I can do. Like, I can fix a toilet. That's fine. That's in my wheelhouse. But you won't catch me on my weekends immersed in some DIY project, like I'm not. I'm not buying. I'm not building a pergola by hand. I'm not reshingling my own roof. I'm not caulking, crown molding, Greg. I'm not doing those things right.

Greg Kyte: Okay. Nor should you.

Caleb Newquist: Know.

Greg Kyte: In my. No, in my book. No, I mean, everything you list, I'm, like, thinking like, uh, like basic, uh, I mean, fixing [00:04:30] a toy, like, are you talking replacing a toilet or, like, taking out the guts?

Caleb Newquist: Like taking out the guts of a toilet and putting a new gut? Okay. Yeah.

Greg Kyte: Because. Yeah. Because I feel like. I feel like we have a comparable level of skills because I can, I can I I've replaced several toilets in my day, but also the other recent. No, I'm never going to reroof my own house. I'm never going to build a pergola. I paid other people to do both of those things. Yeah. And I have a buddy who's good at Crown molding and he I just, I [00:05:00] pretended like I was helping him while he did my crown molding. Yeah, yeah. I mean.

Caleb Newquist: So I think this is due to a couple of things. First, growing up, my dad fixed and built everything. He built us a garage. He built us a deck on the back of our house. I don't know how many times he painted our house. He fixed the roof. He remodeled multiple rooms. Jeez. And he did it with such ease. And, you know, he's good with his hands and just understood how things were made and put together. Yeah, and like, I'm a I was a bookish kid, you know, and so fixing stuff just wasn't super interesting to me at the time. [00:05:30] Yeah. So then I leave home, right? I leave home for college. I spend one year living in the dormitory. You don't have to know any like, imbeciles can live in a dormitory. And it's. And it's fine. And then after I got out of the dorms, then I, I rented for the next 17 years of my life. Yeah. And you know, these days, if something goes wrong in your living space, I think a lot of people just move back in with their parents. But for me, if something went wrong, I call the landlord or I called a super and they handled it and I didn't have to do [00:06:00] anything right, and I and I was perfectly happy not doing anything. Sure. And then I get into a relationship. Fast forward, you know, a few years and I get into a relationship with my now wife. And her dad grew up on a farm farm. Her dad grew up on a farm in northwest Ohio, so he knows how to fix and build everything, just like my dad. And so she, of course, thinks that she's married to a ne'er do well, because every time there's a leaky faucet in her house, it isn't immediately fixed.

Greg Kyte: Gotcha. So you. So [00:06:30] basically, you're just comparing your, uh, handy skills against two of the greats is pretty much in your. Yeah, that you fall short yet?

Caleb Newquist: Yeah. Yeah, but I have to say, I have to say. Okay, there is a silver lining to my story of ineptitude, Greg. Because because my wife cannot abide disrepair. She has become the handy person in the house. Oh, and I have to say, she is quite good at it. [00:07:00] Nice like she does the she does electrical work and I'm just like, I'm like blown away. And she doesn't resent me for it. Nice for not doing it and for not being good at it. And I'm still useful because I'm. Hall, and I'm pretty strong. And so I can reach and lift things.

Greg Kyte: And so you're pulling your weight. That's great.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah I ish. Okay, let's not let's not oversell it. She's probably gonna listen to this, and then she's gonna be like, don't let Greg Greg know. Yeah.

Greg Kyte: Don't don't let you.

Caleb Newquist: Be [00:07:30] yelling at you.

Greg Kyte: Don't don't let him boost your self-esteem and tell you that you're normal. You're not. You're a figure out figure out how to run a wire. Right. Well, Caleb, the reason we're talking about all this is because in this episode, our main character was really good at fraud. I mean, he was really good at fraud until he got caught. Uh, but he sucked at the one thing that he really, really, really wanted to be good at. [00:08:00]

Caleb Newquist: Some people describe Amit Patel as good looking and charismatic. Some people describe him as super basic. He was a lacrosse player in high school, but his real passion was gambling. He started gambling in high school, just online stuff. He kept gambling in college, and when he got old enough, he started going to casinos and poker rooms. [00:08:30] And like any thoughtful gambler trying to limit his downside exposure instead of using his own money, he used his mom's credit card.

Greg Kyte: Classy. Well done. Gotta like that. Hey, pay my tuition. And also while you're at it. Underwrite my gambling.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah. In 2014, when he was 21 years old, he came in 15th place in a no limit Texas Hold'em tournament in the hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Our sources didn't say 15th [00:09:00] out of how many, but he did go home with 7500 bucks, which might have been his biggest win ever because apparently Amit Patel was a legendarily bad gambler. A source told ESPN that Amit was, quote, the biggest loser ever on FanDuel, which.

Greg Kyte: Is surprising because I have such a bad opinion of FanDuel that I assume everyone is a horrible loser. [00:09:30] Who's on?

Caleb Newquist: Are you a are you a DraftKings man?

Greg Kyte: No, I'm just not a not a, uh, a sports bet, sports fantasy daily gambler.

Caleb Newquist: I have to say, the fact that sports betting has, has been legalized essentially in the US and is now just nationwide. It's not nationwide. I know there's some states that still don't allow it, but like here in Colorado, it's legal. And I can not stand the fucking advertisements on TV. Yeah [00:10:00] they are, they're the barrage of ads is just constant. I do not need to see Jamie Fox at the fucking Bellagio ever fucking again. Okay, again.

Greg Kyte: But think about what you're saying with the with the amount of just like like the avalanche of advertisement. Yeah. For these kind of, you know, the Fanduel's, the DraftKings, those kind of things. You've got to assume anyone who has any kind of weakness towards [00:10:30] gambling is going to submit to the avalanche of advertisement.

Caleb Newquist: It's all right here. It's all right here.

Greg Kyte: Yeah.

Caleb Newquist: But you know what I mean.

Greg Kyte: But then think about just think about just the volume of dumbshits and knuckleheads who are on there. But a meet. Patel is still touted as the biggest loser on FanDuel. Like, I.

Caleb Newquist: Really am curious about the source. I'm really was that like, was that a FanDuel source, or was that just one of his buddies who were like, Jesus, he was a [00:11:00] loser.

Greg Kyte: You know what? Espn reported it in their in their article. So yeah, for as much as you trust ESPN's reporters, somebody somebody said that he was the biggest loser on FanDuel.

Caleb Newquist: Well, they got they got legit journalists over there. So they they got somebody to say that.

Greg Kyte: Yeah. Anyway they did they did. It's like, hey, hey, we're legit journalists here. Would you say this? We just need the sound bite.

Caleb Newquist: Can I quote you on this? All right. Amit was not a good gambler, but he must have been at least an okay student because [00:11:30] he earned his MBA and eventually got a job working at Deloitte Big Four.

Greg Kyte: There we go.

Caleb Newquist: There you go. In 2017, while at Deloitte, he had access to a company Amex card, which he used to fund his gambling, his shitty, shitty gambling. He racked up $16,000 of losses on the card. But believe it or not, he paid it all back before he got caught. I would love to hear how that worked out.

Greg Kyte: Yeah, that. [00:12:00] Well, that's that's shocking in so many ways that Deloitte didn't have enough controls on their credit cards that he got away with it to begin with. But maybe that's the whole thing where the mechanic always has a car that doesn't run or something like that, where, yeah, Deloitte, maybe their own internal controls aren't the greatest or something.

Caleb Newquist: Well, and don't forget, like Deloitte is like 1616 grand at Deloitte is that that isn't even that isn't even change in your couch. You [00:12:30] know what I mean? Okay.

Greg Kyte: That's true.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah. A good small amount of money.

Greg Kyte: Good point. Okay. Yeah, I hear that.

Caleb Newquist: Apparently he was able to pay it off with some help from his brother and with the proceeds of a big, fat debt consolidation loan. At this time, Amit was also abusing alcohol, marijuana and Adderall. Let's see now a lacrosse player with a gambling problem, a drinking problem and an Adderall problem. Yeah. Super basic. All [00:13:00] checks out.

Greg Kyte: Yeah, yeah, I think I think we got it verified with with that. In 2018, Amit landed his dream job. He got hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars as the coordinator of Financial Planning and Analysis. He had been a Jags fan since childhood and now he was working for the team in 2021. Uh, Amit [00:13:30] was promoted from coordinator of financial planning analysis to manager of Financial planning and analysis, where his duties included preparing their monthly financial statements, overseeing their budgets and administering their virtual credit card program. Now, if you do not know what a virtual credit card is, you could probably guess and you would be right. Because a virtual a virtual card is just a credit card. That's not a physical [00:14:00] card, it just has it. Basically a computer. It's a computer generated credit card number plus the CVC code, plus the, um, expiration date, all that kind of stuff. Uh, just you just don't have a physical credit card.

Caleb Newquist: And the, uh, is it the, uh, credit card equivalent of a burner phone?

Greg Kyte: Yes. Yeah. No, that's a great that's a great way to think about it because and and that's I mean I think that leads right into a couple of the ways that virtual [00:14:30] credit cards are often used is, uh, for first way that they're touted is that you can have a single use virtual credit card. Yep. So somebody comes and somebody comes to you and they they want you to authorize an expenditure. You say, cool, you give them the virtual credit card. They can use it one time and one time only. So then and and that's kind of the security, the whole thing. It's supposed to add some, you know, some controls over spending at your organization because instead of somebody just rolling, [00:15:00] I mean, we, we have physical credit cards at my company and it's not often, but it's at least a few times a year somebody comes and says, oh, man, I was at I was at, uh, the, you know, I was at Wendy's and I handed him the wrong card. So I need to pay you back the $12.97 for my Wendy's lunch. You know, that that kind of stuff. Yeah. Um, you just don't have to worry about that with a virtual credit card, because nobody. If it's only good for one use, then they go to Wendy's and they accidentally try to use the virtual credit card there, which [00:15:30] would be impossible anyways. And it doesn't run through. So you've got those controls. So it's very nice. The other thing that they tout as being a benefit of a virtual card is if you like, like like, uh, I just, uh, had to for the research for this case, I had to sign up for a 30 day trial to a to The Athletic, which is a. Yeah. Yeah, it's a, it's a, uh, at least online. Maybe they've got a physical. It's part of New York Times. I think it's kind [00:16:00] of the New.

Caleb Newquist: York Times owns it. Yeah. Okay. I don't think it's technically part of the time.

Greg Kyte: Yeah. So somehow it's the New York Times like sports page that. Yeah. A separate subscription to. So I had to throw in a credit card number to be able to get a 30 day trial. If I had a virtual card with a with a single use, I could have thrown that in. And I don't have to worry about canceling that subscription before the 30 days is up. I just go virtual card is going to just it died after. Yeah, after I used it. So no worries. Don't have to worry about that. So [00:16:30] so there's a lot of very interesting uses for that. And like I said, a lot of people, a lot of companies that offer them, uh, they, they tout it as a way that you can control spending. And as a matter of fact, there is a company that I've been using for over a decade that offers virtual credit cards. I've never used their virtual credit card option, but I knew that they did. And I went onto their website, and on their website they actually say, quote, protect your business from fraud and overspending with our virtual cards. Unfortunately, [00:17:00] the Jacksonville Jaguars finance department was understaffed. It wasn't so much understaffed when Amit started working there, but it got that way during his tenure. He started in 2018. In 2019, his boss got a different job in a different department and he wasn't replaced. So as a result, Amit had no direct supervisor. And on top of that, there was little to no separation [00:17:30] of duties in his department.

Greg Kyte: So minimal checks and even fewer balances. Uh, later on, two other people in the finance department quit, which forced those who were left, including Amit, to pick up all of their work because they weren't replaced. And it became actually pretty common for people in the Jags finance department to work. It said 12.5 hour days, which not 13 hours, that would be too long. 12.5 12 and a [00:18:00] 12.5 was the starting at 830, ending at 9 p.m. at night. That's a long ass day, long day for anybody, even if it's your dream job. Um, here's a here's a great example of the understaffing and the weaknesses of the Jags internal controls. And this does come from The Athletic. Uh, they said when Amit first started managing the virtual credit card program, there was an employee from accounting who checked his submitted sheets. But then that employee left and that layer of security [00:18:30] also went away. So when he started, it was reasonably tight. It was it was, at least defensively, uh, tight in terms of their financial controls. But like I like we're saying just over time that just eroded with people leaving and not being replaced. So Amit was the sole administrator of the virtual credit card program, which means he created all of the user accounts. He approved all of the new virtual cards, and he classified all of the [00:19:00] virtual card transactions in the Jaguars general ledger. So every month he created this file that listed every virtual card transaction, including the cost coding information for all of those transactions.

Caleb Newquist: So of course, Amit, with his gambling proclivity and his unsupervised and unchecked authority over the virtual credit card program, started stealing money from his beloved [00:19:30] Jacksonville Jaguars in September 2019.

Greg Kyte: Who? Who could have seen that coming just out of out of nowhere? The guy, nowhere. The guy who has just unlimited control over spending.

Caleb Newquist: Uh, and and a and a love of gambling. Right.

Greg Kyte: And and some, some, uh, some guys with no necks coming to break his thumbs. They. That guy would have stolen money. Weird.

Caleb Newquist: According to the athletic quote, instead of accurately reporting the virtual credit card transactions, [00:20:00] Patel created fraudulent entries using a variety of methods. He identified legitimate recurring transactions such as catering, airfare, and hotel charges, and then duplicated those transactions. He inflated the amounts of some recurring transactions he entered completely fictitious transactions that might sound plausible but never actually occurred, and he moved legitimate charges from upcoming months into the current month.

Greg Kyte: All told, between September [00:20:30] 2019 and February 2023, Amit siphoned over $22 million out of the Jaguars organization. Just to put that into perspective, Caleb Trevor Lawrence, he's the quarterback for the Jags. He makes an average of just a little over $9 million per season. So, uh A. Meat was able to steal more than two years salary of the quarterback of [00:21:00] the team. Impressive.

Caleb Newquist: Can I ask you something?

Greg Kyte: Yes.

Caleb Newquist: How so? He he he he found legit. Transactions, and then you just duplicated them. And then. But then he just took the money from that virtual card he used it to spend he used that virtual card, coded it as catering. Yeah. Spent it on loot. Yeah, yeah. Got it. Yeah.

Greg Kyte: Okay. That's exactly what happened.

Caleb Newquist: All right.

Greg Kyte: You nailed it. [00:21:30]

Caleb Newquist: Okay.

Greg Kyte: Because again, he had the he had the authority. Part of his job was coding all of the transactions. So he created this. I assume it was just a big spreadsheet that showed all of the transactions, who it was to what it was for. And since he was in charge, he was like, well, I just sent another million dollars off to my FanDuel account. But let's say that that was to Jersey Mike's lines. Yeah, it's Jersey Mike's.

Caleb Newquist: Mike's.

Greg Kyte: Exactly.

Caleb Newquist: So, [00:22:00] Greg, you know what I'm curious about? What's that? How did a meet spend $22 million? Oh.

Greg Kyte: Great. Great question. And so it's awesome because I actually just happened to have a list right here. Oh, uh, he bought he bought a $95,000 Nautilus watch. Uh oh. You ever have a Nautilus watch?

Caleb Newquist: Never.

Greg Kyte: Neither have I. No. You know what I do have? I got a cell phone that tells me the time right on that. I don't know why I need a Nautilus watch. He did, and he bought one for [00:22:30] $95,000. He also spent $36,000 on a putter that was used by Tiger Woods during his 1996 US Amateur Championship win. So why would you do that? Because you got the money to. So of course you're going to get it. Uh, he bought he bought, uh, and this I'll tell you, this lines up with a lacrosse player with an Adderall addiction and a gambling problem. He bought $2.1 million worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs because, of course, he would. Fantastic. [00:23:00] Just part of the part of the profile. He spent, uh, almost $80,000 on private jets, plus tons of other money just on trips and vacations and, uh, vrbo's and hotels. Uh, he bought a Tesla model three and a Nissan pickup truck. He purchased a $265,000 condo in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Now, you might be saying, I would sure love to buy a condo for as little as $265,000 [00:23:30] in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. But is it nice there? I don't know if it is just.

Caleb Newquist: I'm sorry. Is it? Is it are you sure it's ponte or is it ponte?

Greg Kyte: I'm gonna say.

Caleb Newquist: Ponte. Ponte Vedra.

Greg Kyte: It could be Vedra. It's not Vedra, it's vedra. I don't know how to pronounce any of these words.

Caleb Newquist: No offense to the good folks in the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida area, but we have no idea whether or not I don't know. Did you go on Zillow and look up condos in the area?

Greg Kyte: Greg I didn't, but [00:24:00] I'm just gonna say it's I. I feel like you'd be hard pressed to find a condo for $265,000 right now, but, uh, also, he started this, uh, this game, all of his stealing pre-pandemic and, uh, housing price $265,000. Sounds like a very reasonable price for a condo. Maybe, uh, right after the pandemic hit and he was able to take advantage of lower housing prices? Possibly. Yeah, at that point, hard to say. Uh, [00:24:30] but this is my favorite thing. He also paid $275,000 to keep a criminal defense attorney on retainer. Uh, nothing. Just in case. Not nothing sketchy about that at all. Uh, interestingly enough, I think I. Caleb, this is one of the things I find very fascinating about this case is that a meet apparently went out of his way to not display his extravagant lifestyle at work. When he was at work, he didn't wear expensive clothes. He [00:25:00] didn't flash his money around. He never wore that crazy expensive Nautilus watch. And he never talked to anybody about his trips on private jets. So this guy, I mean, we know we've talked about this a million times. The the the biggest red flag behavior of people who are committing fraud is that they're living beyond their means. And Amit Patel was 100% living beyond his means, but he had the you know, and who knows, maybe [00:25:30] I don't know. I guess there's part of me that wants to go. He worked at Deloitte. I'm sure that he learned a lot about fraud and detecting fraud while he was at. It's a possibility. So maybe he was like, I'm now committing fraud, so I'm going to make sure that I don't. I mean, the closest thing he did to to showing his flashy lifestyle is that he showed up to work in a Tesla, which when it comes to, um, the that's not a that's not a real big flex. Uh, I.

Caleb Newquist: Mean, maybe, maybe around the time I mean, I guess it depends on the year. Like, [00:26:00] yeah, it certainly is less of a flex than it used to be. Right now it's not a flex at all. Right.

Greg Kyte: Exactly.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah. But who knows. But anyway.

Greg Kyte: But even but even I mean I'd say even at the height of it, you kind of go, oh guys splurged on a nice car. He's. Yeah. I mean the guys, the guys. The fucking manager of financial planning and analysis, he probably makes a, makes a, makes a nickel here and there. But uh but but like I said, he, he kept his, his lifestyle under wraps. Uh, [00:26:30] some of his coworkers did know about his, his lifestyle, especially like some of his trips, uh, from social media. But a lot of people just assumed that he was a rich kid with rich parents. But here's what's interesting, too. Caleb, of the $22 million that he stole, he spent about $5 million of it on all that extravagant shit and on his lifestyle. But because as we've established a meet, Patel sucked at gambling. The other seven. $13 [00:27:00] million that he stole. He lost all of it on FanDuel and DraftKings. Just got it just gone. So and and Patel says that he stole this. This was kind of his explanation when when all this stuff, uh, came down. Is he he was like, hey, I stole that money because it was wrong, but I stole it to cover my gambling losses. And then I stole a bunch more to gamble in hopes of winning it big so I could pay everything back. [00:27:30] Uh, because, you know, that always works out. We've we've seen every movie where people take the entire month's payroll and they take it to Las Vegas and put it all on red. And like I said, red always comes up. Always comes up. Yeah. Without fail. And then listen to this, Caleb. On top of everything else, that son of a bitch didn't even report any of that $22 million on his tax return, motherfucker.

Caleb Newquist: Amit [00:28:00] had a close call, according to TV station News four Jax quote in November 2022, a month after he bought that luxury watch, Patel said he made fraudulent transactions of about $5.6 million, which nearly exceeded the limit of the virtual credit card program to avoid going over. Patel requested a credit limit increase from the bank, and the limit was raised to $7.25 million.

Greg Kyte: Amit [00:28:30] Patel got caught in January of 2023, and it's weird how he got caught. Apparently FanDuel either got suspicious because a meet was funding his FanDuel account with a Jacksonville Jaguars credit card, or something else happened that made them worried about what was going on. It was not clear in the reporting, but regardless, FanDuel thought that Amit Patel's behavior on FanDuel [00:29:00] was sketchy enough that they reached out to the NFL, and the NFL contacted the Jaguars. Who would have ever guessed that FanDuel would be the good guys in any story? But here we are. And listen, if you're doing something that makes FanDuel think that you're sketchy, you're doing some pretty fucking sketchy shit.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah yeah.

Greg Kyte: Yeah. So [00:29:30] the Jags.

Caleb Newquist: Maybe took a took a wrong turn somewhere.

Greg Kyte: Yeah. Your life's not going. Going well if FanDuel is like check out the this.

Caleb Newquist: Ooh yeah. The guys at FanDuel are like geez should.

Greg Kyte: We I mean I know we're the ones benefiting from all of this, but still who don't feel comfortable playing.

Caleb Newquist: A gambling company. Right. It's like, um, guys think we got a problem here, right?

Greg Kyte: Let's contact this.

Caleb Newquist: This loser is is losing [00:30:00] too much.

Greg Kyte: The guy who single handedly.

Caleb Newquist: No gambling company has ever said no. Like, guys, we got this loser over here. We think we gotta gotta do something. He's really losing a.

Greg Kyte: Lot, right? I mean, all our kids, all our kids are already through college because of our bonuses we've gotten from this guy. Right. Okay, then. Now I think it's time to shut shut him down. Right. Just on principle. Right. So the Jags fired a meet in February of 2023, but that didn't stop him from spending [00:30:30] his fraud loot. He still paid his annual dues for his country club membership. He also spent $2,200 for a Trevor Lawrence jersey, and he did that on December 8th of 2023, which was just three days after prosecutors filed charges against him, and just six days before he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and illegal monetary transactions. And I hope to God that he [00:31:00] pleaded guilty while wearing his Trevor Lawrence jersey. I'm sure it didn't happen like that, but it would have been awesome if it did.

Caleb Newquist: In March 2024, Amit was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $21.1 million in restitution. He's also being compelled by the court to attend Gamblers Anonymous. That's probably a good idea. Yeah. Right around the time this story became national news, Amit was spotted driving for Uber in his [00:31:30] Tesla. Apparently, he pointed out to his writers the country club where he was a member, and told them that he used to work in the finance department for the Jaguars, but was laid off due to restructuring.

Greg Kyte: Yeah, the restructuring of we'd like a structure that did not include Amit Patel.

Caleb Newquist: All right, Greg, did we learn anything?

Greg Kyte: I, I I love this case.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah, it's a great case.

Greg Kyte: And and there's there's [00:32:00] a couple things that I think were very interesting about it. Um, first off, we finally saw someone who was committing fraud and was living an extravagant lifestyle, but was again, we talked about it before, but I think that that showed a, I guess, restraint. But also he had to have I mean, why half of the stuff that you do like you, you don't buy a flashy watch to [00:32:30] not to flash your flashy watch. Right.

Caleb Newquist: Uh, no you don't. Yeah. You buy the flashy shit to show off the flashy shit like.

Greg Kyte: A flashy watch is a status symbol. But if no one sees the status symbol, why the hell did you get the flashy watch to begin with? Right.

Caleb Newquist: So that's if a paddock. If a paddock, uh, doesn't, uh, jangle on your wrist [00:33:00] in, in in your house does. Does anyone covet it? What the fuck am I even saying? It doesn't make any sense. But I know what you're saying.

Greg Kyte: Yeah, no, that's a that's a Zen. No, you're it's the. It's the Zen koan. I'm with you. Yeah, yeah. If. Uh.

Caleb Newquist: Okay. Good.

Greg Kyte: Yeah. If.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah. But yeah, it defeats the purpose, right? Right. Like, I mean, what are you going for? You just like, do you think. Do you think you just had it in his home and he would just take it out every once in a while? He'd be like, look at it, right?

Greg Kyte: Just like.

Caleb Newquist: Pet it. That's a $95,000 watch. Not everybody has one of these, but I do. [00:33:30] It's like, okay, that's that's creepy. Yeah, that's some.

Greg Kyte: Serious Gollum behavior. Right? Right. So so again, so I think that's I mean, maybe he.

Caleb Newquist: Was maybe he was kind of flashing. I mean, maybe there'd be certain places where he, I suppose he could wear the fancy watch, like on the private jet.

Greg Kyte: Yeah, exactly. And and that's what, that's what I think is that he just bifurcated his life and he was like, I'm not going to be flashy at work, but I am going to be flashy when I'm when I'm out playing with friends. So I think, yeah, I'm sure [00:34:00] that's what happened. But still I say that's that, that's, that's a level of, of self control that we have not yet seen on any of our cases. So I think that's very interesting. The other thing that we've talked about before, we've we've postulated this where it's like, I wonder how many times people do steal money from their company because because it's a very it's a very common rationalization for fraud that people are like, oh, I'm taking this money, but I'm going to pay it all back when I can. But [00:34:30] what's crazy is that we saw that that he did that when he was at Deloitte. He stole $16,000 at Deloitte, and the dude paid it all back before he got caught. Now, uh, the listeners and you, Caleb, might be wondering, how the hell do we know about this? If he stole it and paid it all back without getting caught? Apparently his his defense attorney, uh, like, brought that up during the case as as part of a ploy for [00:35:00] lighter sentencing is what it was, where it was like. It's like, listen, he did this. We're coming clean about this old stuff. He's really turning over a new a new leaf. Go gentle on on the young man. He's he's he's struggles with gambling addiction. He has for a long time. This shows that. And it also shows that he's got a heart of gold because he really never wanted to hurt anybody. Just like he didn't hurt Deloitte because he, he, he got this debt consolidation loan instead of sticking them with the bill. So.

Caleb Newquist: Right okay.

Greg Kyte: But [00:35:30] but regardless, I do I really like the fact that now we have a concrete example of someone, or at least a reasonably reliable example of someone who did steal money under the auspices of paying it all back and actually did. So I think that that is, uh, that's a little present that I got from this case, which I. Yeah, appreciate.

Caleb Newquist: Nice.

Greg Kyte: And then the last thing that I'm thinking about and this we have, we have talked about this in [00:36:00] the past, but I will say working working employees to death, uh, is not an effective anti-fraud strategy. Uh, we A meat was regularly working 12 hours or more per day. Uh, I and I couldn't verify this in the research, but I've got to assume that a meat was salaried and not hourly. So we've all been there when we've been in, or most of us have been there where you've been in a salaried position and just expected [00:36:30] to work ridiculously long hours and you're just like, yeah, okay, I'm donating. I'm after 40 hours this week. I'm donating the rest of my, my time to this for profit company that I work for. And it's it's it's demoralizing. And again, if one of the three legs of the fraud triangle is rationalization, if you want to dish up a very effective rationalization for somebody stealing money from you, put them on salary and make them work an ungodly amount [00:37:00] of hours, and they'll have that rationalization locked and loaded for when they steal all your money from your virtual credit card program.

Caleb Newquist: Yeah. You know what? I don't make you know what doesn't make sense to me about this? Is that? And maybe I read this in one of the comments on the on the Athletic article, but the Jacksonville Jaguars. Or an NFL or an NFL football team? Yes. One of the most valuable sports franchises [00:37:30] in the world. Okay. This guy stole $22 million. They have enough money. As much money as he stole. They could have. They could have backfilled every single person that left that fucking business. Oh, so that a meet and every other. Whoever was left? Yeah. Didn't have to work 60 or 70 hours a week. Absolutely. To run the finance operations. Right. Fucking football team. Well and there was like.

Greg Kyte: There were stories.

Caleb Newquist: Like [00:38:00] they could hire people. They could pay. They'll pay. There's got to be other meats out there who would love who. Yeah. Who are who are finance and accounting people that would love to work for the Jacksonville Jaguars. So paying the money so they don't fucking steal it. Right.

Greg Kyte: Well and and I can't remember who it was. It might have been The Athletic or it might have been the the news four Jax. Uh because they had a lot of interesting articles about it, but. There was a lot of, uh, financial, uh, you know, people in financial positions and other, [00:38:30] uh, sports teams that they interviewed, and they were all just like, basically thinking, what in the hell was going on at the he he could do what with, with how little supervision. They were like, that's ridiculous. I mean, yeah, it this I mean, this is paraphrasing a bunch of, of different comments from a bunch of different people in financial positions and other professional sports team. But they were they were basically saying, you, you, you got what you, what you had coming. Yeah. I mean, there's [00:39:00] there was a good deal of victim blaming with that where it's like, of course some idiot's gonna steal all your money when you don't have any internal controls than they have, you know, all this, you know, like we said, what was it? Unsupervised and unchecked authority for expenses. So.

Caleb Newquist: Right. Uh, like a, like a like an NFL football team is not is not exactly a sympathetic victim. Yeah.

Greg Kyte: Good, good. It's not. You know, I mean, exactly. You're not stealing from the, uh, from the volunteer firefighters department. [00:39:30]

Caleb Newquist: That's right. So. That's right. Yeah. All right, that's it for this episode. Remember, if you buy a fancy watch with that money that you stole from work, don't wear that watch to work. Save it for the gram.

Greg Kyte: Also, remember, if you have a gambling problem, there is help out there. Specifically more gambling. You're just one big score away from everything going back to normal.

Caleb Newquist: If you want to drop us a line, send us an email at Omi. Fraud at earmark Cpcomm Greg Kite where can people [00:40:00] find you on the internet?

Greg Kyte: Uh, I'm on Twitter at Greg Kite. I'm also on LinkedIn. Uh, I'm Greg Kite, CPA on there. Caleb, how can people get a hold of you?

Caleb Newquist: I'm on LinkedIn. Caleb Newquist my full name. I come on every once in a while. Yeah, yeah. Enough. Yeah, yeah.

Greg Kyte: We keep it. We keep it fresh.

Caleb Newquist: Greg, I'm going to let you read it out. This for this one.

Greg Kyte: Really? Oh, my God, it finally happened. Oh my fraud is written by [00:40:30] Caleb Newquist and myself. Our producer is Zach Franc. Rate review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. If you listen on earmark, you can earn free CPE credit too. Oh my god. Free? Yeah. Fucking free. Join us next time for more avarice, swindlers and scams from stories that'll make you say oh my. Fraud, fraud.