Ex-Texas advisor gets 11 years for Ponzi scheme, Travis Kelce among victims

Former investment advisor Siddharth Jawahar was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to running a $35 million Ponzi scheme, which reportedly totaled over 64 victims including Kansas City Chief star Travis Kelce. 

Jawahar was also ordered to pay $31.35 million in restitution for the scheme that prosecutors said he ran from about July 2016 through December 2023 via his investment firm Swiftarc Capital. Jawahar took in more than $35 million from Swiftarc investors but invested only about $10 million. 

Swiftarc was registered with the Texas State Securities Board but had its investment adviser registration revoked in 2022, according to court documents. According to the AP, The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said there were 64 victims total, with St. Louis ABC affiliate station KMOV reporting that Kelce was mentioned in court by prosecutors as one of the victims.  

“Jawahar ran a Texas-based investment company called Swiftarc Capital LLC. In 2015, he began investing client funds in Philip Morris Pakistan (PMP). Eventually, 99% of client funds were consolidated into PMP,” the U.S. Attorney's Office wrote in a press release. 

A 2021 Forbes article states Kelce was an investor in a fund created by Jawahar’s Swiftarc. The Forbes article also mentioned NBA players Gary Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr and Mason Plumlee as investors in the fund sponsored by Swiftarc. 

“When the value of PMP declined, Jawahar did not tell investors and falsely claimed that his investors were making profits. Investors were also falsely led to believe that he’d invested their money in a specific company or companies but he never made the promised investments,” added the U.S. Attorney's Office. 

Jawahar, who is from India, was identified as an illegal immigrant by federal prosecutors. He was living in the U.S. without legal status since 2005.  

Authorities said Jawahar used money from new investors to repay older investors and to fuel “an extravagant lifestyle” that included travel on private jets, luxury hotels, apartments in Austin and New York City, memberships at multiple private clubs across the country, as well as spending sprees at clothing stores and expensive outings at restaurants. 

Reports do not indicate the extent of losses for Kelce, who has made over $120 million in career earnings from his NFL salary and is newly married to billionaire popstar Taylor Swift. Kelce’s victim role in Jawahar’s scheme follows another investment fraud case in August in which multiple NFL players lost millions in an e-commerce scheme, coming as legitimate financial advisory firms increasingly launch new wealth management divisions dedicated to serving athletes.