Travis Kelce named victim in multimillion-dollar fraud case run by illegal immigrant 

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been named one of the victims of a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme run by an illegal immigrant from India. 

Siddharth Jawahar, 38, who has been illegally living in the U.S. since 2005, conducted a fraud scheme between July 2016 and December 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, taking in more than $35 million from investors – one of whom was Kelce.

Kelce was briefly named as a victim during Jawahar’s sentencing hearing Tuesday, but no other information has been shared, according to KCTV 5, and Kelce has not released a public comment about it.

The sentencing took place one day after the Chiefs won their opening game 31-10 over the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. Kelce had what some are calling the game’s biggest play, gaining 59 yards and nearly scoring a touchdown on a catch and run.

Prior to the football season, Kelce made the news for his wedding to pop culture icon Taylor Swift at Madison Square Garden in New York City on July 3. Adam Sandler officiated the wedding, and Kelce’s older brother, Jason Kelce, served as his best man before a star-studded group of guests.

The fraud scheme

Jawahar ran an investment company based in Texas called Swiftarc Capital LLC and began investing client funds in Philip Morris Pakistan (PMP) in 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Eventually, 99% of the funds were funneled into PMP, and when PMP’s value declined, Jawahar deceitfully told investors they were making profits, failing to disclose that the company’s value was decreasing.

Jawahar also led investors to believe he was investing their money in specific companies, but of the $35 million clients gave him, only $10 million was ever invested. Instead, Jawahar used new client funds to pay old investors and sustain a lavish lifestyle of private jets, luxury hotels, private club memberships, luxury apartments and more.

After Jawahar was indicted for his fraud crimes, he tried to interfere with justice by coaching a victim to give a favorable statement about him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also lied about his immigration status and finances while asking his sister to remotely wipe his iPhone to hide evidence.

Court documents also note that Jawahar paid thousands of dollars to a political consultant to try to influence the court, KCTV 5 reported.

Jawahar pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in January. Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone of the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis sentenced him to 11 years in prison.

Bluestone said the length of Jawahar’s fraud, the enormous amount of losses and the weaponization of his investors’ trust were some of the factors that contributed to his sentence.

Jawahar is also required to pay $31.35 million in restitution to his victims and is expected to be deported after he serves his prison sentence.

(Photo credit: Screenshot/ Facebook/ Travis Kelce)