The ball doesn’t roll forever. And so, for an NFL player with an average career length of 3.5 years – the shortest of all four major sports leagues in the nation – retirement planning becomes critical. That shouldn’t be a problem for Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce, who is potentially playing his final season in Red.

After all, he has multiple ventures and investments he passionately follows. But then there’s the other side of the coin: you cannot pre-empt a loss. It becomes even worse when a promising company showing high growth potential ultimately puts you in a pickle you never knew existed. As they say, if you live in a glass house, you shouldn’t throw stones. The defendant in a St. Louis case, though, hasn’t shied away from doing so.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Zachary Bluestone in St. Louis sentenced Siddharth Jawahar to 11 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that drained millions of dollars from investors across Missouri and beyond, according to First Alert 4. He pleaded guilty to three charges of wire fraud in January after a grand jury indicted him on the charges in March 2024. In the long list of people he burned, prosecutors named Kelce.

Very little was disclosed about Kelce’s connection to the case. Prosecutors simply confirmed he was a victim and left it there, saying they don’t discuss individual victims beyond that. However, a 2021 Forbes article that mentioned NBA shooting guard Gary Harris’ investments in Swiftarc also states Kelce as one of the investors in a fund created by the company. The Chiefs have not responded to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Bluestone also ordered Jawahar to pay $31.35 million in restitution, per a U.S. Department of Justice press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. Jawahar is currently being held at the Ste. Genevieve County Jail. The FBI and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigated the case, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman prosecuting the scheme that has been going on for some time now. Interestingly, it is a bigger web of lies and deceit than it looks on its face.

Jawahar’s company looked great for Kelce and more until it lost everything

How we got here and Jawahar’s true credentials

It all started in 2015, when co-founder Jawahar created Swiftarc Ventures, a Venture Capital firm. In 2021, it also invested in the Swiftarc Ventures Labs Fund, an early-stage vehicle sponsored by the same firm and included investors like Kelce, Harris, Dallas Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr., and Detroit Pistons center Mason Plumlee. The firm certainly showed enough growth to attract more big names.

Apparently, it had raised about half of its $50 million fundraising goal by 2021 with a total of 12 to 15 investments in consumer technology and health and wellness companies. For its future, the firm planned on launching a follow-up vehicle with a $250 million target. Meanwhile, Swiftarc was also investing all of its clients’ money in Philip Morris Pakistan. That’s when things went sideways.

Despite 99% of its clients’ funds sitting in that one investment, Jawahar never told anyone that it was losing value. Instead, he kept telling investors they were profiting, and claimed he’d put their money into companies he never actually invested in. Between mid 2016 and the end of 2023, Jawahar pulled in more than $35 million from Swiftarc investors but only ever invested about $10 million of it. Prosecutors say the rest went toward paying off earlier investors and covering a lifestyle that included private flights, luxury hotels, and pricey dinners out. What’s interesting is that this was not Jawahar’s only time fooling the law.

Due to a deep investigation into him, it was also discovered that Jawahar, who is of Indian origin, has been living in the U.S. illegally since 2005. Instead of finding a way to avoid any more trouble, Jawahar even used this fact to get himself some grace.

The defendant used his paid connections to get Judge Bluestone in his corner

Jawahar knew he was going to be in for a long time unless he found a way to get some leniency. And so, he allegedly paid $10,000 to a political consulting firm, Axiom Strategies, on August 24, to “assist with the development and coordination of approximately one to two advocacy or support letters for consideration in connection with Client’s forthcoming sentencing.” The prosecutors showed recorded jail phone calls to make things worse for Jawahar.

An August 31 phone call between him and Axiom Strategies CEO Jeff Roe discussed the letter, with the defendant asking if the letter would be from a “state senator,” to which Roe responded, “It’s gonna be someone good.” And the consulting firm found him that someone.

First Alert 4 Investigates analyzed that Axiom Strategies and Roe are connected to U.S. Rep. Sam Graves. His campaign has paid Axiom $1.77 million since 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records. On September 3, Sen. Graves signed the letter.

First Alert 4 reports that U.S. Rep. Sam Graves wrote to Judge Zachary M. Bluestone asking him to impose a 48-month sentence on Jawahar, substantially below the sentence sought by prosecutors. The letter referred to Jawahar as an “illegal immigrant” and advocated for leniency despite Sen. Graves saying that he had no personal connection to the defendant. However, he advocated:

“A structured, measured sentence enables him the eventual opportunity to re-enter society as a productive economic agent capable of continuing that restitution,” the letter states.

Jawahar’s attorney, Doug Passon, said his client was remorseful for his actions. But Judge Bluestone was blunt during sentencing.

He pointed to how much money was lost and how long the scheme went on. He also repeated one victim’s words for what Jawahar did: he “weaponized” their trust. And he made clear it bothered him that Jawahar still hadn’t paid any of his victims back. Bluestone did not adopt Graves’ recommendation and instead sentenced Jawahar to 11 years in prison. Making it worse was Jawahar’s behavior after he was indicted.

Jawahar had a well-thought-out plan

The defendant reportedly tried to coach a victim on what to tell the FBI, lied about his immigration status and finances, and asked his sister to remotely wipe his phone to erase evidence.

Prosecutors also revealed that Jawahar had paid a consultant to plant a favorable article about him, hoping it would help sway the judge. Jail phone calls caught the two discussing the plan. However, Judge Bluestone called the attempts to influence him a “ludicrous idea” during the sentencing hearing.

Ultimately, however, Jawahar paid many people to influence the Court in his favor, instead of paying his victims the money he stole. Travis Kelce has not yet responded to this news.