A Connecticut man charged with multiple felonies in Washington is one very unlucky guy.
A hole-in-one golf shot is a rare occurrence. The chances of an amateur making a hole in one on a par 3 hole are roughly 12,500-to-1.
Yet Kevin Kolenda of Norwalk, Conn. couldn't resist providing insurance for golf tournaments offering thousands of dollars in cash prizes if a participant stroked the perfect first swing off the tee.
However, Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler says Kolenda was selling insurance without a license and repeatedly failed pay what amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars to golfers when he lost his risky bet that no one would hole-one.
Kolenda has been charged with five counts of transacting business without a license, a felony.
“He has a long history of selling illegal insurance, refusing to pay prize winners, and thumbing his nose at regulators,” Kreidler says in a statement.
Kolenda, 54, apparently ignored a cease-and-desist order from the insurance department in February 2004 and was fined $125,000 in July 2008.
His scam was not limited to Washington, according to Kreidler. Similar allegations against him and his many business names in Alabama, Connecticut, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina and Ohio.
Kreidler says Kolenda sold $25,000 in hole-in-one coverage for a tournament in Snohomish, Wash. In 2010 but never paid when someone accomplished the feat.
He did the same in Vancouver, Wash. in 2004 and in Bremerton, Wash. in 2003, says Kreidler.
Since 1995 Kolenda has operated using the business names Golf Marketing, Golf Marketing Inc., Golf Marketing Worldwide, Hole-in-Won.com and most recently Hole-inWon.com Worldwide.
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