Travis Kelce named a victim in $35 million Ponzi scheme sentencing

A federal judge in St. Louis sentenced Siddharth Jawahar to 11 years in prison on Tuesday, Sept. 15 for a Ponzi scheme that drew more than $35 million from investors, among them Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Kelce was named only briefly in the courtroom, as one of the people who lost money, and prosecutors said afterward that they do not discuss individual victims, the St. Louis station First Alert 4 reported. He is not accused of any wrongdoing. The amount he lost was not disclosed.

U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone ordered Jawahar to pay $31.35 million in restitution and imposed three years of supervised release to follow the prison term. Jawahar pleaded guilty in January in St. Louis to three counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

One investment, almost all the money

Jawahar ran Swiftarc Capital LLC, a Texas-based investment company, and in 2015 began moving client money into a single investment, Philip Morris Pakistan, the Justice Department said. Eventually about 99% of client funds were consolidated into that one position.

When the value of the investment declined, he did not tell his investors and instead claimed they were making money. Investors were also led to believe their money had gone into a specific company or companies where the promised investments were never made.

Between July 2016 and December 2023 he collected more than $35 million from Swiftarc investors. About $10 million of it was invested. The scheme ran through a set of Swiftarc entities, among them Swiftarc Fund LP and Swiftarc Growth Fund LP.

Prosecutors said he used money from newer investors to repay older financiers and "to fuel an extravagant lifestyle that included flights on private planes, stays at luxury hotels and expensive outings at fancy restaurants." The spending also covered apartments in Austin and New York City, private club memberships and clothing.

The FBI and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman prosecuted it. The investors whose money Jawahar took were in Missouri and other places. Sentencing came on Sept. 15.

How Kelce's name surfaced

A 2021 Forbes article identified Kelce as an investor in a fund created by Swiftarc, which Jawahar co-founded. People reported that the connection ran through the Swiftarc Venture Labs Fund. Authorities did not spell out how that investment was tied to the fraud, TMZ reported.

The Chiefs organization had not responded to a request for comment, First Alert 4 reported. Prosecutors gave no figure for what any single investor lost, and the public account of the case does not describe Kelce's role beyond his status as a victim.

How much Kelce put into the fund, and how much of it he lost, has not been made public.

Kelce, 36, married Taylor Swift, the 14-time Grammy winner, on July 3 at Madison Square Garden. On Monday night, Sept. 14, in a 31-10 win over the Denver Broncos, he passed Jason Witten for the second-most receiving yards by a tight end in NFL history, reaching 13,073.

The money, counted two ways

Prosecutors said the scheme cost victims more than $25 million, while the Justice Department put the total Jawahar raised at more than $35 million, of which roughly $10 million was invested, and no breakdown of losses investor by investor was released.

Bluestone ordered the $31.35 million in restitution paid to the victims. At the hearing, he said he was troubled that Jawahar had paid none of it.

In court, Jawahar said he was committed to making restitution, and his attorney, Doug Passon, said his client was remorseful for his actions.

Jawahar, 38, has been held at the Ste. Genevieve County Jail. In court documents, a judge noted that he is from India and has been in the United States illegally since 2005, and prosecutors said he is expected to be deported after he serves his term.

Obstruction after the indictment

After he was indicted, Jawahar tried to coach one of his victims into giving federal agents a statement in his favor, and asked his sister to wipe his iPhone remotely, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He also lied about his immigration status and his finances.

Prosecutors wrote in their filings that he paid a political consultant thousands of dollars to influence the court instead of paying his victims back the money he stole.

A consultant and a congressman

Prosecutors alleged that on Aug. 24 Jawahar engaged a political consulting firm, Axiom Strategies, for $10,000 to "assist with the development and coordination of approximately one to two advocacy or support letters for consideration in connection with Client's forthcoming sentencing." He was in custody at the time.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, signed a letter on Sept. 3 asking Bluestone to consider a sentence of 48 months, a fraction of the maximum. The letter reached the court on congressional letterhead, according to a docket entry from Sept. 10, and Graves stated that he was writing in his personal capacity. Bluestone did not heed the recommendation.

What the letter argued

The letter opened by telling Bluestone that Graves knew the judge's "professional pedigree" before turning to Jawahar, who the congressman wrote had chosen accountability. It described no personal connection between Graves and Jawahar.

A structured, measured sentence enables him the eventual opportunity to re-enter society as a productive economic agent capable of continuing that restitution.

Recorded jail phone calls captured Jawahar and Axiom's chief executive, Jeff Roe, discussing the letter on Aug. 31, prosecutors said. Jawahar asked whether it would come from a state senator, and Roe answered, "it's gonna be someone good." On another call, Jawahar said the purpose of a favorable article was "to influence the judge," and Roe said he would put money behind it and geofence the judge's house.

Axiom Strategies and Roe are connected to Graves, whose campaign has paid the firm $1.77 million since 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records. First Alert 4 reported that Graves' office was contacted multiple times and did not respond, and that Axiom did not respond either.

Prosecutors also pointed to an article about Jawahar in the Jefferson City News Tribune, which praised an academic and vocational academy he was said to have built inside the jail. Officials at the Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center said no incarcerated individual, including that detainee, had ever started any program at the facility. Bluestone called the attempts to influence him a "ludicrous idea."

A second case naming Kelce

Kelce's name sits on a second legal matter. 1587 Sneakers has filed a trademark infringement complaint naming him and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes over 1587 Prime, the Kansas City steakhouse the two players co-founded. Their attorneys have asked the court to dismiss all claims against them with prejudice, arguing among other grounds that the court has no personal jurisdiction over them, and the case remains ongoing.