Man accused of hole-in-one insurance policy scam
A Norwalk, Conn., man stands accused of swindling several golfers out of their prize money.
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| Hope that wasn't a hole-in-one. (GettyImages) |
Accused of a scam involving hole-in-one insurance policies, Kevin Walter Kolenda of Norwalk, Conn., allegedly cheated various local golfers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to a report in the Norwalk Patch, here's how Kolenda allegedly worked the con game.
Step one: Create fake insurance company, in this case Golf Marketing Worldwide LLC.
Step two: Sell hole-in-one insurance to small-time tournaments (it's not an uncommon practice for the directors of those tournaments to purchase this insurance when offering prize money for holes-in-one).
Step three: Lucky hack drains a hole-in-one but Kolenda allegedly is already long gone, refusing to pay when contacted.
The article in the Norwalk Patch said this about a few lucky (or unlucky) tournament participants:
... Kolenda sold a hole-in-one policy for a tournament in Bremerton, WA. Kreidler said a golfer sank a hole in one, but Kolenda wouldn't pay a prize of $10,000.
Kreidler said Kolenda also sold a hole-in-one policy in 2004 for a tournament in Vancouver, WA, for a prize of $50,000. A participant sank a hole-in-one, but Kolenda refused to pay the prize.
After a hearing in 2008 that Kolenda failed to attend, he was ordered to pay a $125,000 fine, which he allegedly never did.
And in 2010, Kreidler said Kolenda sold coverage for a $25,000 prize for a tournament in Snohomish, WA, where a player sank a hole-in-one. Kolenda allegedly never paid the prize.
Really, it seems like you could think of a better way to make a living than hoodwinking a poor sap out of what he thought he was getting for something that he had probably never done.
All I could think of the entire time I was reading this story was Paul Casey's distraught caddie when he found out he actually hadn't won the car he thought he had.
















