Chiefs' Travis Kelce among the victims in Ponzi scheme, per report

Kelce was named as an investor in a fund run by Siddarth Jawahar, who pleaded guilty in a federal fraud case

Sep 17, 2026 at 8:55 am ET • 1 min read

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was reportedly among the victims in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. Kelce was not named in the indictment or judgment in the case, but his name was briefly read in a St. Louis federal courtroom as being among the more than 64 victims, according to an investigative reporter for KMOV in St. Louis. 

The defendant in the case is Siddarth Jawahar, who founded an investment fund called Swiftarc Ventures Lab Fund in which Kelce was identified as an investor in a 2021 Forbes article. Other notable investors included NBA players Tim Hardaway Jr., Gary Harris and Mason Plumlee. It was not reported whether any of that trio were also listed as being among the victims in the fraud case against Jawahar. 

The indictment, which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports, stated that Jawahar took tens of millions of dollars from new investors and used a portion of the money to pay off his previous investors and used the remainer to fund a luxury lifestyle "including payments for flights on private planes, stays at luxury hotels, and expensive outings at lavish restaurants."

Jawahar pleaded guilty in January to federal wire fraud charges. He is currently in Ste. Genevieve County jail, according to KMOV. He was sentenced this week to 11 years in prison followed by three years of supervision and ordered to pay over $31 million in restitution to his various victims. 

According to KMOV, Missouri Congressman Sam Graves (R) wrote a letter to the judge in the case, asking for leniency and a four-year sentence, but the judge did not heed the recommendation.