Prosecutors earlier this month submitted court filings that appear to show Republican political consultant Jeff Roe, through his company Axiom Strategies, agreed to provide illegal alien Ponzi schemer Siddharth Jawahar with public-relations and advocacy services related to his sentencing, including efforts to secure favorable media coverage and support letters, under a $10,000 agreement.
The filings also include a transcript of a jailhouse phone call in which Roe proposed spending money to geofence the home address of the judge overseeing Jawahar’s sentencing in a bid to ensure he would see a favorable news article about Jawahar.
Prosecutors submitted the filings on September 14, notifying U.S. District Judge Zachary Bluestone of a Public Relations Agreement and jailhouse phone call transcript, just one day before Bluestone issued his sentence on September 15.
The contract shows that Jawahar was to pay Axiom Strategies in four installments of $2,500 for his services, which included “developing and implementing an effective strategy for presenting his background, professional and charitable history, rehabilitation, mitigation circumstances, and other appropriate matters to relevant media, governmental, public-policy, and other constituencies.”
While the contract is undated, the transcript reflects an August 31 phone call, beginning with a conversation between Jawahar and Roe about a letter of support. Roe told the fraudster he would expect to have a letter the following morning, and Jawahar then asked the political consultant about how to release and disseminate a favorable news article in a way that would not “backfire” on the fraudster.
“Okay, and then Doug said, just to be super cautious, he asked if you could wait until sentencing to publish the article,” Jawahar told Roe, according to the transcript. “Which I told him would defy the purpose because part of it was to influence the judge and see that he gets the corroboration of our story, but he thinks there is enough corroboration as it is.”
Roe replied, “It ran,” and told Jawahar that he communicated with his mother to inform her of the article’s publication.
“It was in Sunday’s paper,” said Roe. August 31 was a Monday.
The transcript does not identify what news article was being discussed by Roe or Jawahar, but The Missouri Independent reported last week that the Jefferson City News Tribune published a sympathetic article about Jawahar on August 28, just days before the phone call occurred.
Similarly, the transcript does not identify “Doug,” but the defense attorney representing Jawahar was Douglas Passon.
While transcript suggests the article was apparently published without the knowledge of Jawahar, the unsigned contract prosecutors submitted states that Roe or Axiom was supposed to “coordinate, as appropriate, with the Jawahar Defense Team and Client’s legal counsel.”
The contract also states that all services rendered will be “in accordance with applicable law.” During the call, however, Roe said he did not know whether geofencing the judge’s home with the article could ‘backfire.’
“So, I’m gonna take that and I’ll put a little money around it and geofence his house and he’ll see it unless you don’t want me to do that,” said Roe, according to the transcript.
After Jawahar asked if that meant the judge would see it, the transcript shows Roe replied, “Well, I know he’ll see it if we wanna do that. And so I’ll wait to do that until we talk tomorrow? But, you might wanna double check that because he’s not an idiot.”
Shortly after, the transcript shows Jawahar asked about the potential for the plan to geofence the judge’s home for the purpose of advertising a sympathetic news story to “backfire.”
“S***, I don’t know either,” Roe told Jawahar, according to the transcript. “But, I can’t imagine good news backfires.”
Geofencing refers to location-based advertising that allows an advertiser to draw a digital boundary around a physical location, then serve online advertisements to electronic devices detected within this area. The Federal Trade Commission has described the process as creating a “virtual fence” around a physical place, allowing advertisements to be delivered only in a specific range.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Jawahar was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and to pay $31.35 million in restitution, after he lied to investors who provided more than $35 million for his various funds between 2016 and 2023.
The Texas State Securities Board also confirmed on Monday that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was among Jawahar’s victims.
According to the DOJ, Jawahar only actually invested about $10 million. He did not tell investors when the fund later declined, and instead “falsely claimed that his investors were making profits.” Prosecutors also said Jawahar used money from new investors to repay old investors.
The DOJ said Jawahar enacted his Ponzi scheme while living “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.”
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Jawahar is an illegal alien from India, and said he will be deported at the conclusion of his sentence.
“This criminal mastermind’s endgame was to steal their money so he could be popping champagne in the lap of luxury, but karma has finally tackled him,” said a DHS spokesman. “Once he completes his sentence, he will be SWIFTly deported from the United States and live the rest of his life in exile.”
Roe or his company have worked with campaigns of many prominent Tennessee politicians, including U.S. Representatives Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03), Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), and John Rose (R-TN-06), as well as former U.S. Representatives Diane Black and Stephen Fincher.
Last week, the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance referred to the Tennessee Attorney General a complaint against the American Exceptionalism Institute, the group behind the advertisements targeting U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), which The Tennessee Star previously linked through tax, business and campaign filings to PACs connected to Roe’s political network.
The Star contacted Roe and Axiom for comment but did not yet receive a response.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Siddharth Jawahar” by DHS and “Jeff Roe” is by Jeff Roe.
