Travis Kelce named as victim of $35m Ponzi scheme as investment manager sentenced

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been named in federal court as one of the victims of a $35 million Ponzi scheme.

The revelation emerged during the sentencing of Siddharth Jawahar, a 38-year-old investment manager who was handed an 11-year prison term on Tuesday. Jawahar, who ran the Texas-based investment firm Swiftarc Capital LLC, was also ordered by US District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone to pay $31.35 million in restitution.

Federal prosecutors in St Louis revealed Kelce’s involvement during the court proceedings, though they did not disclose exactly how much money the NFL star invested or lost. Local television station KMOV reported that prosecutors mentioned Kelce's name in court without offering further details. Prosecutors have emphasised that Kelce was strictly a victim of the scheme and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

How the scheme worked

According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, Jawahar’s firm began taking in money from investors in 2015. Over the next eight years, he gathered more than $35 million from clients, promising to spread their money across diverse opportunities.

Instead, Jawahar put about 99% of the funds into a single, highly speculative investment: Philip Morris Pakistan. When that investment plummeted in value, he chose not to tell his clients.

To keep the fraud going, Jawahar began acting like a classic Ponzi operator. He fabricated financial statements to show healthy returns and used cash from newer clients to pay off older investors who wanted to withdraw their money. Of the $35 million he took in between July 2016 and December 2023, he actually invested only about $10 million.

The rest of the money funded what prosecutors described as an "extravagant lifestyle." Jawahar spent investor cash on flights in private jets, stays at luxury hotels, expensive dinners, high-priced apartments, and memberships in exclusive private clubs.

The sporting connection

While Kelce’s name was the most prominent one raised in court, he is not the only high-profile professional athlete caught up in the collapse of Swiftarc.

A 2021 profile in Forbes of NBA guard Gary Harris detailed how several professional athletes had backed Jawahar’s "Swiftarc Venture Labs Fund." Beside Harris and Kelce, the article named NBA players Tim Hardaway Jr and Mason Plumlee as investors.

For Kelce, who recently signed a contract extension to return for his 14th season with the Chiefs, any financial hit is likely buffered by a lucrative career. He, Harris, and Hardaway have each earned more than $111 million in career salary, according to contract tracker Spotrac. Kelce also married pop star Taylor Swift in July.

Attempted cover-up

Jawahar pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud. Yet even after his indictment, prosecutors said his deceptive behaviour continued.

In court filings, the government revealed that Jawahar had tried to interfere with the federal investigation. This included attempts to coach a victim on what to say to investigators and deleting evidence from his personal mobile phone.

Neither Kelce nor his representatives have commented publicly on the sentencing or the scale of his losses.