Finally, Golf Has Its Bernie Madoff: Meet Giant Golf Company
by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 20, 2009 11:38 AM EDT
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PrintThe San Jose Mercury News reports on a man who created a false trust so that he could keep his golf businesses going.
Colin Nathanson, 62, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. An Orange County man has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison for swindling investors out of $28 million for a trust that didn't exist.
Nathanson solicited money from 2,500 investors for an investment trust that he said would be used to buy ownership interest in a private Internet-based technology company.
In fact, Nathanson was using the money to prop up his two failing golf businesses and fund a lavish lifestyle that included three houses in pricey areas of Orange County.
Taking a look at the Securities & Exchange Commission website dedicated to this case, his two golf companies appear to have been named Giant Golf Company and Play Big Enterprises. Seriously? Those are companies that just scream phoniness. It's like that Simpsons episode where the FBI parked in front of Homer's house in a van marked Flowers By Irene.
The end result of the suit was that each investor got about $100 back, in addition to those that received Ponzi-like payments of around $5 million while the scam was still in operation. Seeing as though they each invested about $11,000 on the average, that is one hell of a return on their investment. Oh! I forgot that minus sign.
Poking around the Internet, it looks like Stephenson at least tried to operate Giant Golf as a legitimate business.
Check out this press release submitted to the World Golf Wire in 2001 about their new driver. Thankfully, World Golf also updates us that Giant Golf no longer exists.
They even went to tournaments in the region to get people interested in trying out their clubs. Some guy who had never heard of them was sold on them after he tested them at a Utah outing in '04.
Looking to learn more about the clubs themselves, I found this review of their GX2 irons. At another site that was selling the irons, the retailer had this apropos statement about Giant Golf:
For a bit of background on Giant Golf, they made a nice product, but sadly are out of business, it had nothing to do with there clubs, but the way they ran the company. Great clubs, poor management.
Generously, the retailer did have a picture of the box the irons were shipped in that now serves as quite a beacon of the Nathanson scam.
If you take a gander at the URL that used to house Giant Golf's site, it's some weird/bogus golf directory site that hasn't been updated in three years. Seems fitting.
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hey – maybe he could sue Callaway for the “FT” series infringment and get enough money to pay back all the “investors” and…and…ok..that’s a stretch. :-)
62 years old – gets a 27 year sentence – that’s gotta hurt. This is a federal charge – he is supposed to serve 85% of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. When are we going to start putting these computer hacker types behind bars for similar sentences ?
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I always thought of Bobby Ginn as being the Bernie Madoff of golf, but then again Bernie Madoff was the Bernie Madoff of golf in his own right.
This guy, however, seems to take the cake, the icing and the candles.
Ginn was a very good name in real estate for a while until they got caught up in the economic downturn. I seriously doubt he intended to cheat his customers when he started getting involved in building resorts and subdivisions and getting involved in PGA and LPGA tournaments.
Bernie Madoff had been running his ponzy scheme for years – he was a cheat plain and simple. There were even had people standing up trying to point out what he was doing, but they were ignored.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Ginn just made the horrible mistake of assuming that real estate would go up and up forever.
Email me any comments or questions at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.
by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 20, 2009 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions
True enough, Court, but he’s being sued for misrepresenting property values, for scams like selling two lots and recording one at double price and the other at one dollar in order to pump up his comps. In Michiganm, a class action lawsuit has been filed00 Michigan investors for tricking them into buying over priced lots in Ginn Developments that included Bella Collina and Reunion Resort in SW Orlando.
No that’s not a Ponzi scheme, but Ginn has certainly left a trail of very angry investors. I heard about it all the time from a golfing buddy who has some property in a Ginn resort outside Orlando. He’s suing one of Ginn’s many umbrella companies for four or five different things.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 20, 2009 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions
no doubt – he did a lot of underhanded things – and they aren’t completely uncommon in these big contracting businesses. I’m not saying they are right – just that Ginn isn’t the only builder who has pulled these things. I didn’t mean to make him out to be an angel. He has a lot of things to answer for.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
As to the Bernie Madoff of golf was Bernie Madoff, doubtlessly you remember this:
http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1900665,00.html
Golf figured prominently into Madoff’s scam.
And to think he now lives on the fringes of the other side of my metro area in a prison cell in Butner.
We do live about 5 miles from NC’s Central Prison…a lovely maximum security joint where Death Row is….but it is nearly downtown and we are safely ensconced in the ’burbs.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 20, 2009 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
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