Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been among the victims of a Ponzi scheme that took in more than $35 million from investors, according to a Missouri prosecutor. The prosecutor mentioned Kelce in court as 38-year-old Siddharth Jawahar was sentenced to 11 years in prison in connection with the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Jawahar pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in January. He was also ordered to pay $31.35 million in restitution.
The prosecutor brought up Kelce’s name without further comment, according to television station KMOV. A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Jawahar ran Texas-based investment company Swiftarc Capital LLC, which began taking money from investors in 2015.
Jawahar put all of the money he accepted into a single investment, which later declined in value. He did not notify investors of the loss, instead telling them they were making money and using money from new investors to repay earlier investors.
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He also used the investment funds to support what prosecutors described as an “extravagant lifestyle” that included private jets, luxury living, fine dining and memberships in private clubs. While Jawahar received more than $35 million from investors, he invested only about $10 million between July 2016 and December 2023, according to the news release.
Kelce, 36, is unlikely to be the only athlete affected by the scheme, The Guardian reported.
Robert Patrick, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, said there were 64 victims in total but declined to answer questions about Kelce’s connection to the case, according to CNN.
Jawahar was indicted by a grand jury in 2023 and pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud. Jawahar, who is from India, has lived in the U.S. without legal status since 2005, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said that after his indictment, Jawahar tried to coach a victim into giving the FBI a favorable statement. They also said he lied about his immigration status and tried to get a relative to remotely wipe his iPhone to conceal evidence.
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A 2021 Forbes article about the growing financial portfolio of NBA guard Gary Harris included several comments from Harris about his investments, including the Swiftarc Ventures Labs Fund. Jawahar was a co-founder and managing partner of the fund. Harris also spoke about how much he had learned from Jawahar.
The Forbes article mentioned other athletes who had invested in the fund, including Kelce and NBA players Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mason Plumlee.
According to Spotrac, Kelce, Hardaway and Harris have each earned more than $111 million in career earnings.
In July, Kelce married Taylor Swift, who had an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion on the day of their wedding.