Travis Kelce is reportedly one of the victims of an elaborate Ponzi scheme run by Siddharth Jawahar.
Per a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Missouri, on September 15, the 38-year-old businessman, who ran an investment company that he used to allegedly scam investors out of millions, was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
He has also been offered to pay $31 million in restitution to those he had defrauded. The case was prosecuted in St. Louis, and per multiple reports from NBC and KMOV, Travis, 36, was mentioned briefly in court as one of the victims.
A 2021 story by Forbes lists Travis as one of the investors in Swiftarc Ventures Labs Fund, one of the entities Jawahar used in his scheme under the Swiftarc Capital LLC umbrella. Others like Orlando Magic guard Gary Harris, Dallas Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and Detroit Pistons center Mason Plumlee were also investors in the company.
Per the court release, Jawahar ran a Texas-based investment company, Swiftarc Capital LLC, and in 2015, he began investing money from clients into a single entity, Philip Morris Pakistan (PMP).
99% of the client funds were eventually put into PMP, and when its value declined, he failed to notify the investors of such. Eventually, he was able to acquire over $35 million in funds for Swiftarc while only actually investing $10 million of it.
© Getty ImagesThe rest was used to “repay older investors and to fuel an extravagant lifestyle that included travel on private jets, stays at luxury hotels, a luxury apartment in Austin and New York City, memberships at multiple private clubs across the country, spending sprees at clothing stores and expensive outings at fancy restaurants.”
The other entities that he managed under his umbrella include Swiftarc Fund LP, Swiftarc LLC, Swiftarc Holdings, SJ Investment Holdings LLC, Order of Magnitude Ventures LLC, Extra Sensory Perception Inc., Swiftarc Growth Fund LP, Swiftarc Opportunities Fund LP, SJ Investment Holdings LLC, SV Labs SPV 1 LP, Swiftarc Venture Labs Fund GP LLC, SJDB Ventures LLC, Swiftarc Ventures LLC, Swiftarc Venture Labs Fund LP, Swiftarc Telehealth Labs Fund LP, NI Stubbs LLC and Swiftarc Beauty Fund LP.
© Getty ImagesPer the court, after he was indicted, Jawahar reportedly tried to get his sister to wipe his iPhone clean to delete evidence, cloud the details of his immigration status, provide false reports of his finances, and even convince one of his victims to give a more favorable testimony.
The presiding judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone, cited the losses that Jawahar caused investors to be “enormous” and stated he “weaponized” the trust of his investors by not paying back the victims on time.
© Getty ImagesJawahar was indicted in January and pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in a U.S. District Court at the time.
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