Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce has been officially named as one of 64 victims targeted in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme operated by Texas-based investment manager Siddharth Jawahar. The revelation came during a federal sentencing hearing on Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, where Jawahar, 38, was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.
Jawahar, who operated Swiftarc Capital LLC, was indicted after prosecutors proved he defrauded clients out of tens of millions of dollars between July 2016 and December 2023. While federal prosecutors publicly disclosed Kelce’s status as an investor during sentencing, specific details regarding the exact financial losses sustained by the three-time Super Bowl champion were not read into the public record. Kelce previously was identified as an investor in a Swiftarc-managed venture fund in a 2021 profile published by Forbes.
According to court filings from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jawahar began heavily misallocating client funds as early as 2015, eventually consolidating up to 99% of his firm’s capital into a single position in Philip Morris Pakistan. When that investment plummeted in value, Jawahar concealed the losses from clients, issuing fabricated account statements that reflected steady, lucrative returns.
Out of the more than $35 million raised from high-net-worth individuals and athletes, Jawahar invested only roughly $10 million, using new investor capital to pay out false returns to earlier clients while funneling millions into an opulent personal lifestyle. Prosecutors outlined extravagant expenditures including luxury real estate in New York and Austin, private jet charters, elite country club memberships, and high-end retail sprees.
Presiding U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp cited the “enormous” scale of financial devastation and Jawahar’s failure to begin making restitution payments as key factors in handed down the 132-month sentence. Representatives for Kelce have not issued a formal statement regarding the court proceedings.
