Sports briefs
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Former Jaguars
financial manager
gets 78 months in prison
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. | A former Jacksonville Jaguars financial manager who pled guilty to stealing more than $22 million from the NFL franchise through its virtual credit card program was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison Tuesday.
Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. sentenced Amit Patel, 31, in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville. Patel, wearing a charcoal suit and a burgundy tie, showed no emotion inside the packed courthouse as the punishment was handed down.
Prosecutors said Patel has returned $1.89 million, leaving his restitution tab at $21,132,454.40 — a figure the judge acknowledged he will never be able to pay back following a felony conviction. Patel pled guilty in December to one count of wire fraud and one count of making an illegal monetary transaction.
The judge sentenced Patel to 78 months on each count, to run concurrently. It was the lowest number under sentencing guidelines. He also got three years of supervised release.
Patel’s lawyer argued for a lighter sentence Tuesday, asking for no more than 60 months. Prosecutors countered and detailed how Patel used “insider information” to go unnoticed for 40 months (between 2019 and 2023) while making hundreds of fraudulent transactions.
“If he can steal $22 million and get probation, he’s going to do it again,” assistant U.S. attorney Michael J. Coolican argued. “He’s a smart guy and will find a way. … If it’s reported on SportsCenter tonight you can steal $22 million and get a low-ball sentence, a slap on the wrist, you better watch out.”
Patel had roughly two dozen friends and family members in the courthouse. Four of them spoke on his behalf: his older brother, an uncle, a former high school teacher and his girlfriend.
Patel wiped away tears as his brother detailed his younger sibling’s alcohol abuse and gambling addiction, as his uncle told the court what a prison sentence would do to Patel’s widowed mother, as his former teacher called him a model student and as his girlfriend talked about standing by him through weekly alcohol and gambling addiction meetings and having to take a job as an Uber driver.
Patel closed the hearing and said he started gambled 14 years ago.
“I stand before you embarrassed, ashamed and disappointed for my actions,” he said. “It began small and then snowballed so big that my only thought was to gamble my way out of it. In the end, I always thought that big win was right around the corner and would fix all my problems.”
Patel said he is nearing one year of sobriety.
“Part of my recovery process is making amends,” Patel said. “However, that seems impossible given how many people I’ve let down.”
Megha Parekh, the Jaguars’ chief legal officer, read a victim-impact statement to the court.
“Speaking on behalf of the Jaguars, do know that we want to move on and forgive, not just Amit, but ourselves for trusting him only to watch him shame us, individually and collectively,” Parekh said. “We are proud of our employees for how they weathered through the mess he made. But make no mistake, Amit broke our hearts.”
Patel’s lawyers said he gambled away “approximately 99%” of the misappropriated money and said his gambling losses totaled $32 million.
Patel gambled on prominent websites at the Jaguars’ facility, which triggered an NFL investigation. The NFL met with Patel in February and then turned the case over to the FBI. The Jaguars subsequently suspended and eventually fired Patel, who began working for the team in 2018.
Patel oversaw the company’s monthly financial statements and department budgets and served as the club’s administrator of its virtual credit card program, which allowed authorized employees to “request VCC’s for business-related purchases or expenses.”
Patel used his control to make fraudulent transactions, according to the court filing. He duplicated and inflated transactions for items such as catering, airfare and hotel charges and filed fake transactions that seemed legitimate.
The Jaguars insist Patel was a rogue employee who took advantage of a lack of oversight after a co-worker with similar authority was moved to another department. No one else in the finance department has been fired, and the Jags have since instituted more checks and balances to prevent something similar from happening again.
Patel went to great lengths to hide his actions, even paying off some of the credit card debt from his personal account. He used the money to buy two vehicles, a condominium in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach, a designer watch and cryptocurrency, according to court documents.
He spent more than $278,000 on hotels, rental properties and travel. He spent more than $200,000 on golf memorabilia, including $47,113.92 to purchase a putter used by Tiger Woods during the 1996 U.S. Amateur. He spent more than $77,000 at the Ponte Vedra Beach Inn & Club. He spent $140,412.97 on eBay and $69,025.26 with Ticketmaster.
He also used $275,000 of the stolen funds to hire his attorney, according to court documents.
Stephen Curry cleared to resume on-court work
SAN FRANCISCO | Stephen Curry was cleared Tuesday to resume on-court activity as he recovers from his latest right ankle sprain, and if all goes well could rejoin the Golden State Warriors for practice Friday in Los Angeles.
The team provided an update on Curry’s health after he was re-evaluated Tuesday and determined to be making “good progress.” He is scheduled to be examined again after the Friday workout. He will train in the Bay Area until then, missing Wednesday’s game at Dallas. The Warriors play at the Lakers on Saturday night.
An MRI on Curry’s ankle last week revealed no structural damage.
The two-time MVP was hurt late in the fourth quarter of last Thursday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls. Curry rolled the ankle driving to the basket, then limped off and headed to the locker room.
Curry missed his fourth and fifth games of the season Saturday and Monday, both against San Antonio. Since the 2014-15 season, the Warriors are 65-105 in the regular season without the 10-time All-Star.
Curry, who turns 36 on Thursday, has hurt the same ankle several times previously during his 15-year career.
The Warriors are 10th in the Western Conference with 18 games remaining.
Stanford star Cameron Brink declares for the 2024 WNBA draft
STANFORD, Calif. | Stanford star Cameron Brink will finish her collegiate career this season and enter the WNBA draft.
The nation’s No. 1-ranked shot blocker announced her decision on social media on Tuesday, two days after second-ranked Stanford lost 74-61 to No. 5 Southern California in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game in Las Vegas. The Cardinal (28-5) dropped to fourth in this week’s AP Top 25 while USC rose to third.
Brink could have returned for a fifth year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to athletes competing during the interruption from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am excited to announce that I will be declaring for the 2024 WNBA Draft,” Brink wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Although I am excited for that next chapter, we still have unfinished business and so much to accomplish in my final season at Stanford.”
The 6-foot-4 Brink is Stanford’s second-leading scorer at 17.8 points per game and the leading rebounder, averaging 12.0 boards — ranking her third in the nation. She has blocked 109 shots this season and is averaging 3.52 per game, both top marks in the country.
She has swatted 406 shots for her career, recently becoming the 17th Division I player with 400 career rejections, and is one of 10 players who are Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalists.
Brink is 19 blocks shy of the Pac-12 record of 425 set by Oregon State’s Ruth Hamblin.
“Cam has had an exceptional college career and fully embraced what it means to be a Stanford student-athlete during her time on The Farm,” Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said in a statement.
“She worked hard to improve each and every year, helped us win a national championship, and has a lengthy list of very well-deserved awards and accomplishments. Simply put, she’ll go down as one of the best in program history.”
Russian skater’s doping case leaves WADA targeting new rules
LAUSANNE, Switzerland | The doping case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva left a “very unpleasant” taste with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is unhappy that the teenager was the only one punished with a ban while her coaches and entourage have not been sanctioned.
WADA now wants anti-doping rules to be updated before the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy to give more powers to investigate athlete entourages, officials said at the anti-doping body’s annual conference Tuesday.
“It is clear that the taste of this case is very unpleasant when you see that there was a choice made to sacrifice an athlete rather than indicating who actually helped her dope,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said.
Valieva was given a four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in January following an appeal by WADA. She was 15 when her positive test for a banned heart medication was revealed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, and later blamed on a strawberry dessert prepared by her grandfather. She has been the only person punished despite the World Anti-Doping Code mandating that the people working with underage athletes implicated in doping cases should also be investigated.
The responsibility to conduct those investigations falls on national authorities and there is no sign that Valieva’s renowned coach Eteri Tutberidze and medical support staff will be held to account in Russia.
Instead, Tutberidze was last year awarded one of Russia’s highest honors authorized by President Vladimir Putin.
Niggli acknowledged that “the evidence is not there” to link the coach directly with Valieva’s doping case, suggesting that “maybe the physio, maybe the doctor” were involved.
Still, WADA confirmed that it feels the adults responsible for Valieva’s case have eluded the anti-doping system.
“We think the athlete didn’t take this substance alone, it was not her initiative,” WADA President Witold Banka told The Associated Press in an interview. “She faced the consequences.”
“It is never nice when we see the athlete punished and we feel that someone who was really responsible for it from Russia is free of charge,” Banka added, lamenting that “the current geopolitical situation” will not allow for a WADA-appointed investigation in Russia.
Valieva and Russian sports officials have filed an appeal against the CAS ruling at Switzerland’s supreme court, which can intervene on limited grounds of abuse of legal process. The federal court typically takes at least several months to give a ruling.
The skater’s ban is set to expire in December 2025 — just three weeks after the next global review of the anti-doping code hosted by WADA. That meeting is scheduled to be held in Busan, South Korea.
“Maybe this (Valieva) case shows how important it is that we have to improve in the anti-doping system. We are doing it now,” Banka said.
Tutberidze is now coaching a new generation of teenage Russian skaters preparing for the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics.
Niggli was asked what the International Olympic Committee, International Skating Union and anti-doping officials can do to prevent a possible repeat of the Valieva case in Italy.
“The ISU would have to look at their testing program leading up to the games to make sure that all athletes maybe training still with the same coach — even so, we don’t know if she has anything to do with that — are being properly tested,” he said.
In fresh appeals to CAS, Valieva and Russian skating officials are challenging the fallout of her disqualification from the Beijing Olympics. The ISU’s reallocation of points in the team event dropped the Russians from the gold medal to bronze, awarding the Olympic title to the United States.
Canada’s team, which placed fourth in Beijing, also appealed to CAS get the bronze. The court has given no timetable to judge the latest round of appeals.
The team event medals were never awarded in Beijing because of the Valieva case.
Italian police search
AC Milan’s offices
as part of probe
MILAN | AC Milan’s offices were raided by police on Tuesday as part of an investigation by Italian prosecutors into the sale of the Serie A giant.
RedBird Capital Partners purchased Milan from fellow American firm Elliott Management in August 2022, but Milan prosecutors claim Elliott still owns and controls the Italian club.
Italian financial police raided Milan’s offices on Tuesday and also reportedly searched the homes of current CEO Giorgio Furlani and former chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who held the role from 2018 to 2022.
Furlani and Gazidis are being investigated for allegedly hiding information related to the sale from the Italian soccer federation.
“In regards to the search carried out today in its headquarters, AC Milan is a third party and extraneous to the ongoing legal action concerning the purchase of the club,” Milan said in a statement it sent to journalists including The Associated Press.
“The investigation, which also involves the legal representatives with authority to sign, Giorgio Furlani and Ivan Gazidis, hypothesizes incorrect communications to the competent vigilance authority. The club is giving its full cooperation to the investigating authority.”
Milan could nevertheless be fined or docked points by the Italian soccer federation.
—From AP reports
