Travis Kelce, victim of a Ponzi scheme of more than $35 million dollars
According to prosecutors, Siddharth Jawahar defrauded 64 victims, including the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.
Travis Kelce was identified as one of the victims of a Ponzi scheme that moved more than $35 million through the investment firm Swiftarc Capital LLC.
The Kansas City Chiefs player's name appeared on Tuesday, September 15, during the sentencing of Siddharth Jawahar, who was sentenced by St. Louis federal judge Zachary Bluestone to 11 years in prison and to the payment of $31.35 million in compensation to the victims.
His relationship with the firm had already come to light in 2021, when Forbes included him among the athletes who had invested in a fund linked to Swiftarc.
Jawahar, 38, and founder of Swiftarc Capital , began in 2015 that his clients' money would be concentrated in an investment related to Philip Morris Pakistan. According to the United States Department of Justice, he ended up placing 99% of his clients' funds in that asset.
When its value fell, Jawahar concealed the losses and continued telling investors that his positions were generating profits. Instead, he falsely told them that their investments were making money.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri stated that, between July 2016 and December 2023, Jawahar received more than $35 million from investors in his company, Swiftarc Capital LLC , but invested only about $10 million of that amount.
The court documents cited by the prosecution describe trips on private planes, stays at luxury hotels, apartments in New York and Austin, private club fees, clothing purchases, and meals at expensive restaurants. The investigation also concluded that Jawahar tried to obstruct the process after being charged: prosecutors argued that he attempted to influence a victim's testimony, lied about his immigration status, and tried to have evidence deleted from his phone.
Kelce, among the 64 affected
The Department of Justice counted 64 victims in the case. Kelce was not the only athlete linked to Swiftarc: a report published by Forbes in 2021 had also identified NBA players Gary Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Mason Plumlee as investors. The amounts that any of them lost as a result of the fraud have not been reported, but it is possible that they also fell for the scam.
Robert Patrick, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, stated that there were a total of 64 victims, but declined to answer questions about Kelce's connection to the case.
Jawahar was formally charged by a grand jury in 2023 and pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud.
The defense of Jawahar acknowledged the seriousness of the facts after the sentencing. His lawyer, Doug Passon, argued that his client had committed "very wrong things" and serious crimes, and noted that he had taken responsibility. The prosecution, for its part, highlighted the duration of the fraud and the losses caused to investors as determining factors in the sentence.
The exact amount Kelce allocated to Swiftarc and the money he may have lost have not been made public. The player remains with the Kansas City Chiefs after beginning his fourteenth NFL season with a 31-10 victory over the Denver Broncos.
