By Brian Niemietz
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Newly married Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was one of the victims in a $31 million Ponzi scheme prosecuted in Missouri.
Siddharth Jawahar, who had been living in the United States illegally, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $31.35 million in restitution to victims of a scam dating back to 2016 on Tuesday, Justice Department officials said.
The 38-year-old was accused of collecting more than $35 million from investors and sinking only $10 million of that money into profit-seeking ventures.
Prosecutors said Jawahar didn’t tell his clients that investments being made to a company called Philip Morris Pakistan (PMP) were in decline. He instead deceived them into believing their funds were growing.
He’s accused of using money from new investors to repay older investors through 2023.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Missouri, Jawahar used his gains 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.”
He pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud.
Forbes named Kelce as one of several professional athletes who’d invested in a Texas-based fund created by Jawahar called Swiftarc Capital LLC in a 2021 article.
Missouri news outlet KMOV reported that Kelce was named as one of Jawahar’s victims in court, though little was said about his business dealings. It’s not clear how much money the 36-year-old NFL star might have lost.
Celebrity Net Worth puts his value at $90 million. He married pop music superstar Taylor Swift in July. The “Shake it Off” singer is worth $2 billion according to Forbes.
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