A Texas investment manager was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to running a $35 million Ponzi scheme that federal prosecutors say defrauded several professional athletes, including Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Siddharth Jawahar pleaded guilty in a St. Louis federal court to three counts of wire fraud. A judge ordered him to pay more than $31 million in restitution.
According to the Department of Justice, Jawahar raised between $35 million and more from investors between July 2016 and December 2023 through his firm, Swiftarc Capital LLC. Rather than managing diversified portfolios as promised, prosecutors say Jawahar funneled nearly all of the money into a single stock, Philip Morris Pakistan.
Federal prosecutors said Jawahar actually invested only about $10 million of the total raised. The rest, they say, went toward personal luxuries, including private jet charters, upscale apartments in Austin and New York, expensive dining and memberships at exclusive private clubs.
Athletes Among the Victims
Kelce was named among the professional athletes victimized by the scheme. Several NBA players were also identified as victims, including Gary Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mason Plumlee.
The financial loss comes as Kelce, 36, and his wife Taylor Swift, also 36, settle into a new life together. Kelce reportedly purchased a 21,000-square-foot lakefront mansion in Ohio for $5.35 million, according to property records obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The outlet reported he closed on the home in March, four months before he and Swift married at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Part of a Broader Pattern
Jawahar’s case is not the only recent fraud scheme to touch professional sports. Federal prosecutors in Oregon have separately charged 35-year-old Daejon Labrayae Love with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud after he allegedly posed as a San Francisco 49ers player in a romance-and-investment scheme that began in February 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon. An 18-year-old co-defendant, Taylor Jamie Chan, faces the same charges. That scheme is alleged to have taken nearly $1.3 million from victims.
Federal authorities continue to investigate financial fraud targeting professional athletes, whose wealth and public profiles have made them recurring targets for schemes ranging from fake investment funds to fraudulent romantic relationships.
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