On Wednesday, Richard Brendan Globensky, a former employee of Augusta National Golf Club, pleaded guilty to transporting stolen Masters merchandise and artifacts across state lines. The stolen items were valued at millions of dollars.
39-year-old Globensky pleaded guilty in the Eastern Division of the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois in Chicago, where a third party sold many of the stolen items.
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The maximum sentence for the charge is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, the plea deal has reduced the potential sentence to a range of 2 to 2.5 years. In addition to the prison term, the court can also impose a fine, require restitution, and place Globensky on supervised release.
Globensky confessed to pilfering millions of dollars’ worth of prized possessions, which included the renowned green jackets worn and won by golf legends like Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, and Gene Sarazen.
He also took documents that were written and signed by Bobby Hogan, as well as a significant amount of Masters tournament merchandise. This included hats, jackets, T-shirts, watches, mugs, and various other items.
Globensky pilfered the items during his tenure as a warehouse assistant responsible for receiving and storing Masters Tournament merchandise. He also played a crucial role in maintaining the records used to audit the merchandise after the yearly Masters golf tournament.
Globensky confessed in his plea deal that he started stealing items in 2009 and carried on with this illicit activity until around August 2022. He admitted to transporting the stolen goods to Florida, where he would then hand them over to an online broker for sale.
The stolen goods had an estimated value of $5.6 million, and the broker made a substantial profit by selling them at prices much higher than what was initially paid for them.
In his plea deal, Globensky admits that his thefts resulted in approximately $3.45 million in losses for the Augusta National Golf Club.
The sentencing for Globensky is set to take place on October 29th.
