Hole In One Video Guy Scammed $10,000
You really do have to feel sorry for this poor guy, Matt Ramsay, who thought he won $10,000 in a putting contest only to later find out he was the victim of a scam by a guy who has a record as long as your arm.
George Dohrmann in Sport Illustrated writes a serious piece exposing the multiple scams of Kevin Kolenda.
First however was the was the moment of joy for Ramsay, whose $10,000 ‘winning’ putt was filmed on youtube.
Finally, Ramsay had to make the putt. It broke to his left and was downhill, but Ramsay read it perfectly and nailed it. The video of him celebrating is priceless. He took a sweeping victory lap around the green -- "I thought about jumping the pond," he says -- and then chest bumped a guy he had just met that day, and hugged the friend who invited him to the tournament, who was joyfully screaming: "You son of a bitch! You son of a bitch!"
Soon came the realization that he was part of an insurance con.
Since at least 1995, Kolenda had been selling insurance without a license in several states to people seeking indemnity for hole-in-one and putting-contest prizes. On the occasions when a winning shot occurred -- it happens more often than people think -- Kolenda often did not pay. His victims have included the charities that hosted tournaments, including the Marine Corps League and the D.A.R.E anti-drug campaign, and an untold number of prizewinners like Ramsay. Kolenda ran his simple scheme so habitually that he has been convicted of felony larceny and fined $5.9 million in Connecticut, and he has been charged with crimes or sanctioned by insurance regulators in numerous other states.
Poor old Ramsay said. "I pretty much knew then that I wasn't going to get the $10,000. I went from being happy to, well, pretty depressed."
Well at least he has the video!
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