It’s honest to say Oklahoma pickleball referee Ron Ponder has modified his opinion of Rodney ‘Rocket’ Grubbs fairly dramatically in recent times.
When the pair first met at a event in Italy in 2018, Grubbs was a ‘very nice man’ and ‘very outgoing’.
Now, Ponder describes his erstwhile good friend as an ‘a**gap’ and a ‘psychopath’.
He’s not the one one.
Grubbs, of Brookville, Indiana, allegedly ensnared tons of of individuals and plenty of of his shut mates in an $47.5million fraud through which he lured buyers into pumping tons of of hundreds of {dollars} into his pickleball enterprise.
Rodney ‘Rocket’ Grubbs from Brookville, Indiana, launched Pickleball Rocks in 2009 to promote a sequence of attire and gear for the game – and shortly began to persuade different pickleball followers to put money into his enterprise
Melody and Greg Woodsum, of Cape Coral, Florida invested round $200,000 over a number of years, however say they haven’t obtained a penny again
Walt Hooker, pictured together with his spouse Roberta at a pickleball event in Palm Coast in 2018, invested $25,000 in Pickleball Rocks
The person as soon as dubbed the game’s ‘final ambassador’ travelled to tournaments the world over touting Pickleball Rocks as ‘the world’s most acknowledged pickleball attire model’.
However authorities say he was issuing promissory notes to individuals throughout the nation – normally for $25,000 at 12 p.c curiosity over 18 months – that have been not often fulfilled.
The scandal has precipitated shockwaves throughout the genteel world of pickleball – a sport higher recognized for its pleasant face than the large cash antics of different established sports activities.
As Grubbs’ victims demand their former good friend be slung in jail, they’re left questioning how a retired AT&T employee with an affable, bumbling and God-fearing demeanor might have pulled off such a unprecedented ruse.
The rise
‘It’s a loopy state of affairs we now have discovered ourselves in,’ says Melody Woodsum, a 65-year-old pickleball referee from Cape Coral, Florida.
Melody, additionally a pickleball official, and her husband Greg, 66, piled round $200,000 into Pickleball Rocks over a number of years.
They are saying they haven’t obtained a penny again – and are owed greater than double that when curiosity and late-payment penalties are accounted for.
The Woodsums first met Grubbs, 68, and his spouse at a pickleball event in Naples, Florida, in 2016.
Melody remembers him as a ‘very pleasant individual’ and the 2 {couples} would exit for dinner at any time when they have been at an occasion collectively.
The households turned such shut mates that the Woodsums even stayed on the dwelling of Grubbs’ son, Josh, after they took half in considered one of his pickleball clinics.
Having established this bond, Grubbs hit Melody and Greg together with his pitch in October 2017.
They’d be considered one of 5 or 6 individuals investing in his pickleball attire firm, however swore them to secrecy so his opponents would not know the supply of his funding.
For the Woodsums, it felt like a calculated gamble.
‘We knew there was a danger in it, however we additionally knew the pickleball business was rising and tournaments have been increasing,’ Melody says. ‘We felt it was all inside purpose.’
Oklahoma-based pickleball referee Ron Ponder (pictured) invested $65,000 in Grubb’s pickleball enterprise
Grubbs was described as ‘pickleball’s final ambassador’ and traveled the world to play in tournaments – and his agency had a projected income of $1million in 2022
Grubbs has not been charged with against the law, which his victims say is ‘mind-boggling’
Regardless, they have been sure Grubbs would make good on his guarantees.
‘They [his family] are trustworthy individuals,’ Melody provides. ‘They’d all the time pray on the dinner desk earlier than the meal. So you may have this image of a person who may be very sincere. A God-fearing household man and businessman.’
Grubbs, who was a property investor following his retirement, additionally had a set play for engaging additional capital.
He would declare considered one of his buyers was cashing out and he wanted substitute funding – or that his enterprise was increasing to incorporate nets, balls and paddles, permitting Pickleball Rocks to focus on faculties and schools, in line with a 19-page criticism from the Indiana Secretary State.
It’s echoed by different mates and buyers, together with Walt Hooker and Ponder, who put in $25,000 and $65,000 respectively.
As a substitute of paying the cash again when it was due, they are saying Grubbs would make excuses – usually to do with the pandemic – and provide to roll the cash over into the following funding.
The autumn
The sport of pickleball may be increasing, however it’s nonetheless a comparatively small world inhabited by gamers who stumble upon acquainted faces at numerous tournaments throughout the US.
Quickly, the key started to leak.
Ponder says he raised an eyebrow when one other participant advised him he hoped Grubbs would make a great deal of cash promoting his T-shirts as a result of he was an investor.
Then, at a event in Holly Hill, Florida, in December 2022, all of it got here spilling out.
Teri Siewert, 67, who had invested $25,000 in 2019, had began to suspect one thing was up after Grubbs missed yet one more fee deadline in September that yr.
She started asking different gamers about him. The primary individual she requested, Teri says, burst into tears when she claimed Grubbs had taken her cash and would not give it again.
Teri began a Fb group known as ‘From Pickleball Rocks to Jail Rocks’ and shortly tons of of comparable tales began pouring in.
Shortly after the group was based, Teri obtained a wire switch from Grubbs of greater than $50,000 – accounting for his or her $25,000 funding plus accrued penalties and curiosity.
Teri Siewert (pictured), an investor who lives in Florida, uncovered the scheme when she began asking different pickleball gamers about their investments with Grubbs
The next day, Teri contacted Matt Foster, an Indianapolis legal professional. Foster now represents greater than 300 purchasers with claims in opposition to Grubbs going again to the early 2000s.
The one-time ‘pickleball ambassador’ owes a complete of $47.5million to greater than 500 collectors throughout greater than 30 states and several other nations for pickleball and actual property investments, court docket filings declare.
Nobody is aware of the place the cash has gone. His mates say he by no means lived a lavish life-style.
The securities division of Indiana’s secretary of state issued a cease-and-desist order banning Grubbs from issuing additional notes, alleging he was breaking state securities legal guidelines.
He was compelled into involuntary chapter earlier this yr after a gaggle of collectors confronted him throughout a court docket listening to in Indianapolis.
Pickleball Rocks has closed and Grubbs has disappeared from the event circuit.
In court docket filings, he claimed belongings of $1.6million.
The aftermath
Grubbs hasn’t been charged with against the law, a lot to his collectors’ frustration.
Teri says it’s ‘thoughts boggling’ he hasn’t been arrested, whereas Melody believes he ‘ought to be in jail’.
Grubbs, for his half, has stated he by no means issued a mortgage he did not intend to repay.
In a written response filed within the chapter case in January, Grubbs claimed the identify Pickleball Rocks had been ‘significantly diminished’ by gossip and ‘coordinated’ social media assaults by buyers.
He stated the enterprise might ‘proceed to develop’ with good administration.
Grubbs even advised Ron in textual content messages, seen by DailyMail.com, that the sequence of occasions that had led to his downfall have been the work of Devil.
A few of his collectors, together with Teri and Walt, managed to assert again what was owed to them, largely by sheer persistence.
Most, nonetheless, like Ron and Melody, haven’t been so fortunate.
Social media has not been so sympathetic to their woes, claiming such rich, clever individuals ought to have recognized higher than to fall for such excessive charges of return on an unsecured merchandise.
Grubbs texted Ron Ponder claiming that the sequence of occasions that had led to his downfall have been the work of Devil. The sequence of messages have been obtained by DailyMail.com
Grubbs has stated he by no means issued a mortgage he did not intend to repay. He has claimed the identify Pickleball Rocks had been ‘significantly diminished’ by gossip and ‘coordinated’ social media assaults by buyers
However Ron factors out that 12 p.c was not that a lot of a bump on the 8 p.c his cash was making elsewhere, so felt believable.
‘Folks say I ought to have accomplished my due diligence,’ he says. ‘However I do not understand how, plus, I did not assume I wanted to, it was Rodney!’
Grubbs additionally knew methods to play the sport. He introduced within the former president of USA pickleball as an investor and made it public that he had paid him again to spice up his credibility.
Melody says the truth that they have been beneath the impression that there was solely a small pool of buyers made the scale of the scheme additionally really feel extra practical.
She and others thought his whole debt was only some thousand {dollars}, which might be lined by his belongings.
‘We felt he had the flexibility to pay it again,’ she provides. ‘By no means in our wildest goals did we expect he owed tens of millions.
‘We have been betrayed by a good friend. I imagine individuals are sincere and I belief my mates.’
However Ron not believes he was ever a good friend. It was ‘all an act’ he says, a premeditated play to focus on doubtlessly rich retirees with change to spare.
Grubbs might have labored out a canny enterprise, however his ‘good man’ persona was the largest hook he had.
‘You do not mortgage cash to a Soviet murderer,’ Ron provides.
