Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was one of the victims in an alleged fraud scheme that was prosecuted in Missouri.

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Sid Jawahar, a venture capitalist, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in a multi-million fraud scheme in which Kelce was named as a victim. There wasn’t much more information regarding Kelce, or the rest of the victims of the case, but the star tight end was briefly mentioned as a victim.

Neither Kelce nor the Chiefs commented on the case, which came to a close with Jawahar’s sentencing earlier this week. Additionally, prosecutors made it clear that they wouldn’t go into detail about the victims and their roles in Jawahar’s alleged scheme.

Here’s a breakdown of why Travis Kelce was named a victim in this case.

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Travis Kelce fraud case

Travis Kelce was named as a victim in a fraud scheme in St. Louis, in which defendant Sid Jawahar was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Tuesday. Jawahar was accused of defrauding victims out of around $25 million when he ran a Ponzi scheme for several years.

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In 2019, Jawahar co-founded Swiftarc Ventures, a venture capital firm, but prosecutors said Jawahar used money from new investors to pay back his old debts and to «fuel an extravagant lifestyle.» Jawahar pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges as a result before he was sentenced to over a decade of prison time.

Prosecutors didn’t detail Kelce’s role in the fraud scheme besides just that he was a victim. Forbes reported in 2021 that Kelce was an investor in the Swiftarc Ventures Labs Fund along with several other athletes. Gary Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mason Plumlee are other athletes who reportedly invested their money in the fund, per Forbes.

Jawahar is also accused of paying a consultant to get positive articles written about him in an attempts to «influence the judge» in his sentencing. Additionally, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves wrote a letter to the judge asking for a lenient sentence of four years, but prosecutors argued that Jawahar hired a firm to try and get favorable letters written about him to the judge.

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Jawahar is expected to be deported once he completes his prison time.