Earlier this week we discussed how venture capital was involved in a $31 million Ponzi scheme whose victims included NFL star Travis Kelce and several retired NBA players.

• Now we've learned that a venture capitalist was the key whistleblower.

What follows is based on an exclusive interview with Dean Newton, co-founder of Relevance Ventures -- the largest Native American-owned venture firm not backed by a tribe. He hadn't wanted to tell his story until after Swiftarc Capital's Sid Jawahar was sentenced.

Backstory: Fred Goad was a successful Nashville-area entrepreneur and investor, and in 2013 agreed to make a modest (for him) investment in Swiftarc Capital, a Texas-based hedge fund investing in frontier markets.

• Goad also was affiliated with Relevance Ventures, a health-focused venture firm led by brothers Cameron and Dean Newton (their uncle is singer Wayne Newton).
• He and Cameron were kindred spirits — chrismatic optimists. Dean Newton, meanwhile, was a pessimist and curmudgeon who didn't know Goad well on a personal basis, despite Relevance operating within Goad's family office space.

January 2023: Goad, then 82 years old, walks into Dean's office and says, "I think I need your help with something."

• Newton replied: "Don't take this the wrong way, Fred, but I think you probably want to talk with Cameron. He's more your style."
• Goad said: "I know whose office I'm in," and then shared his fears about Swiftarc, which by then he'd learned was almost entirely invested in a flailing Pakistani cigarette maker.
• Goad's primary concern was that he'd introduced some friends to Swiftarc's Sid Jawahar, who was soliciting them for funds.

The next few months: Newton thought it was possible that Goad's fears were unfounded, perhaps the byproduct of sloppy bookkeeping. But alarm bells began ringing when he asked Jawahar for materials.

• First, there was no reply. Then, after numerous requests, Jawahar sent over hundreds of pages via PDF in which were buried just a few pages that were responsive to the actual request.
• Jawahar would set up meetings with Newton, but kept canceling. Newton just kept asking for paper, and eventually began to receive documents — including some details of the Pakistan transactions and several VC funds that Jawahar was in the midst of raising.
• "We found that the Pakistan transaction had happened, although we didn't really know if someone had kicked back money to Sid on the back end," Newton says. "We also started seeing all these other funds, some were VC funds in which Fred's network had probably invested, and saw that Sid was borrowing millions of dollars from them at preferred interest rates."
• He adds: "There also were a couple instances where Fred's name popped up in cap tables of funds that Fred had no knowledge of."

April 2023: Newton knew that Jawahar was unethical, but wasn't sure he'd done anything illegal.

• He also wanted to get some investor money back, and convinced Jawahar to basically turn over operations of a Swiftarc VC fund to Relevance. The books on that one were relatively clean; there wasn't much personal borrowing, and the portfolio companies were in Relevance's wheelhouse.
• But, more importantly, it gave Relevance access to LP lists and a valid reason to contact them.
• "We started getting questions we didn't expect, like, 'What happened to my investment in SpaceX or The Boring Company?' Suddenly we started to see what we'd suspected all along but couldn't prove."
• Newton began calling companies that Swiftarc investors thought they were in, only to consistently find out they weren't.

Decision time: Newton and several Swiftarc investors decided the information should be turned over to the feds, despite lawyers telling them it would probably be a waste of time. Such cases are rarely prosecuted.

• But Newton had a friend-of-a-friend who was an FBI agent, and spent a week at the Bureau's office in Atlanta —including lots of phone time with field offices in St. Louis, Charlotte, and New York.
• In December 2023, Jawahar was indicted. Last week he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $31.35 million in restitution.
• Fred Goad died in July 2025.

Final thoughts: As the saga was nearing its end, Dean Newton had a conversation with Jawahar. I'll let him tell it:

• "He told me he made only one mistake: 'It never occurred to me in a million years that Fred would have someone like you ... Fred is nothing but a good man. You're an asshole and seem to enjoy it.' Clearly I underestimated him.'"
• "I actually laughed, because it cast such a light on his character that he thought his mistake was more about how he got caught than the people he'd hurt. It pretty much told me everything I'd ever need to know about him."

CVC Capital Partners and Japanese buyout firm NSSK have submitted around a $3.2 billion nonbinding takeover bid for Kobayashi Pharmaceutical (Tokyo: 4967).

Why it's the BFD: Kobayashi was at the center of a 2024 contamination scandal that was tied to kidney failure and deaths.

• The company sold cholesterol-lowering supplements containing red yeast rice, but another fungus was mistakenly introduced during the fermentation process.
• Kobayashi has denied that any deaths were directly caused by its products, but has made settlement payments and had a founding family member resign as company president.

The bottom line: "By going private, the maker of everything from eye drops and skin creams to air fresheners and cotton balls would have a chance to revamp quality controls and deal with rising raw-material costs." — Bloomberg

🚑 OpenEvidence, an AI search engine for doctors, raised $250m at a $15b valuation led by a16z, per Business Insider. axios.link/4ABJDiQ

• Solcoa Industries, a producer of rare earth metals, raised $45m in equity funding, per Axios Pro. Bain Capital Ventures led, joined by Gigascale Capital, Long Journey, Felicis, and Dylan Field. It also secured $30m in debt led by JPMorgan. axios.link/4hmZdpx

• PicoJool, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based semiconductor laser diode startup, raised $27.5m. Socratic Partners led, joined by Hudson River Trading. axios.link/3V9UOz2

• Ando, an SF-based messaging platform for teams working alongside AI agents, raised $20m from Accel, Index Ventures, and Emergence Capital. axios.link/4jnXjHP

• Wealthcome, a French wealth management software provider, raised €15m in Series B funding. Breega led, joined by BlackFin Capital Partners. axios.link/4iMGV3x

• Mesa Quantum, a Boulder, Colo.-based developer of quantum sensing technology, raised $11.8m led by Playground Global. axios.link/4yW4r2z

• StandardX, a British isotope developer, raised £10m in seed funding. Vsquared Ventures and East X Ventures led, joined by Firstminute Capital, UKI2S, Brevan Howard Macro Venture, and Geometry. axios.link/4d0j38P

• Givestar, a U.K. platform for charitable giving, raised £9m. Mercia led, joined by Love Ventures. axios.link/4hvfyJ3

• Dextr AI, an SF-based developer of hotel AI agents, raised $6.7m in seed funding. Elevation Capital led, joined by Foundation Capital. axios.link/47jCCpa

• 50skills, an Icelandic HR workflow automation platform, raised $6m in funding led by Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Avant and DRD Investments. axios.link/4ALXTWi

• Kontext, a developer of runtime security platform for AI agents, raised $4m led by 42Cap. axios.link/4rwu73p

• Clastix, an Italian developer of Kubernetes infrastructure software, raised €2.9m in seed funding. CDP Venture Capital led, joined by Mistral and Vertis. axios.link/4yRdAcQ

• Topdog, an operator of real-money multiplayer games, raised $2.5m in seed funding. Boston Seed Capital led, joined by The Raine Group, Bullpen Capital, Versus VC, Spoondrift Capital, and Permit Ventures. axios.link/3VwZG14

• Duqu, a Dutch B2B short-term financing startup, raised €1.5m in pre-seed funding from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures. axios.link/4rDNPdO

• O-ID, a Tokyo-based developer of modular humanoid robots for industrial manufacturing and logistics, raised $1.2m in pre-seed funding. Tawani Ventures led, joined by Hustle Fund and Techstars. axios.link/3VNzak8

• 73 Strings, an NYC-based financial software company backed by Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, acquired Callisto, a Paris-based financial automation platform. axios.link/4yWXtKH

🚑 Arcventis Health Partners acquired a majority stake in Aligned Modern Health, a Chicago-based functional medicine company backed by Harbour Point Capital. axios.link/4hq771t

🚑 Bridgepoint agreed to buy Altano, a German operator of equine veterinary clinics, from Ufenau Capital Partners. axios.link/4hKeOAT

• The Expo Group, a New State Capital Partners portfolio company, acquired Toddstreet, an NYC-based creative experiential agency. axios.link/4rqIAOg

• Groundcover, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cloud monitoring company backed by One Peak, acquired Wand, a Tel Aviv-based cloud application company. axios.link/4yUMG3I

• Inflexion agreed to invest in Manucurist, a French brand of plant-based nail care products. axios.link/4yqCD6A

🚑 ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based developer of siRNA therapies, raised $446m in its IPO. It priced 26.3m shares at $17, versus plans to offer 21.88m shares at $15-$17. The Phase 3 company will list on the Nasdaq (ADRX) and had raised around $350m from firms like OrbiMed (30.8% pre-IPO stake), Lilly Asia Ventures (15.7%), SR One (11.1%), and Bain Capital Life Sciences (6.8%). axios.link/3VlBWNl

🚑 City Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of RNAi medicines, filed for an IPO. It plans to list on the Nasdaq (CTY) and had raised $240m from Arch Venture Partners (35% pre-IPO stake), Fidelity (10%), Invus (8.4%), Viking Global Investors (5.2%), Sofinnova Investments, Casdin Capital, NYBC Ventures, Slate Path Capital, Rock Springs Capital, Regeneron Ventures, and AN Ventures. axios.link/4hcasCr

⚡ EcoCeres, a Hong Kong-based maker of sustainable aviation fuel that's backed by Bain Capital, plans to seek $1b in a local IPO, per Reuters. axios.link/4ruw14L

• Nscale, a London-based AI hyperscaler that last week filed for an IPO, raised $3.36b in a convertible note offering led by Third Point. Other participants include Nvidia, Apollo, Citadel, Hudson Bay Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, and 8090 Industries. axios.link/4rwWlex

• Gamut Capital Management and British Columbia Investment Management are prepping a sale of PS Logistics, America's largest privately held flatbed trucking carrier, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4d5rKyD

⚡ Oaktree sold COL Group, an Italian power transmission and distribution specialist, to Eaton (NYSE: ETN) for €810m. axios.link/4hs44G6

• Systematic Growth is seeking to sell Swedish health supplements maker Wellma for more than €1b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/47hCo1M

⚡ Genel Energy (LSE: GENL) sweetened its takeover bid for Capricorn Energy (LSE: CNE) to around $436m, topping Capricorn's agreement with Norwegian oil firm DNO. axios.link/4yaWnv3

🚑 Genentech is paying Earendil Labs $55m upfront and up to a total of $1.5b to discover and develop cancer therapies. Earendil this year raised nearly $800m from Dimension Capital, DST Global, INCE Capital, Luminous Ventures, Miracle Capital, Sanofi, and the Biotech Development Fund. axios.link/4jlHpxA

🎲 MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) is weighing a bid to buy Barry Diller's People Inc., which just withdrew a takeover bid for MGM (yes, this would be boomerang M&A), per the WSJ. People Inc. owns media properties and also a 27% stake in MGM, where Diller is a director. axios.link/4yXvmLF

🚑 Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) is paying Stockholm-listed Nanexa up to $1.3b to license and develop a drug delivery tech that could cut the frequency of GLP-1 injections. axios.link/4ADcseO

• Telefónica (Madrid: TEF) is seeking to sell its Venezuelan unit, per Bloomberg. axios.link/46KTfdj

• Lightspeed is targeting $250m for its next India-focused early-stage fund, per TechCrunch. axios.link/3TQugCn

• Jennifer Hankins joined Rev1 Ventures as president and CEO. She previously was with Tulsa Innovation Labs. axios.link/4xMjOKd

• OMERS Ventures promoted Laura Lenz to head of ventures. axios.link/4hoUHqq

Oracle sent a force majeure notice to the developer of Project Jupiter, a $165 billion New Mexico data center project being developed by Blue Owl Capital, with Bloom Energy's fuel cells to be a core power source.

• The move led to stock declines for all three companies, highlighting Wall Street fears over the private credit-fueled data center boom.