‘Hallmark of a Ponzi scheme’: Title sponsor of Myrtle Beach’s PGA Tour event faces fraud allegations

Posted Monday, October 5, 2026 3:06 pm

David Hucks (via MyrtleBeachSC)

What the ONEflight lawsuits mean for the Myrtle Beach Classic — and for visitors planning a trip to the Golf Capital of the World

For two springs running, anyone who walked the fairways at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club saw one name nearly everywhere: ONEflight. The Colorado private jet company shares top billing on the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, Myrtle Beach’s PGA Tour event, and it helped bring Hollywood names such as Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell to the tournament’s celebrity pro-am. Today that same company has stopped flying and is facing three federal lawsuits that accuse it of fraud.

In mid-September, ONEflight told its customers it was suspending all flight activity for at least 30 days while it reviewed its operations [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026]. Within days, clients who had prepaid for private flight hours began filing suit in federal court in Colorado. One complaint argues the company used new customers’ deposits to cover what it owed earlier customers and charter operators — what the suit calls “the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme” [Post and Courier, 2026].

These are allegations, not findings. No court has ruled on them, and a company representative could not be reached for comment by local reporters. Still, for anyone who visits Myrtle Beach to play golf, or plans to return for the tournament next May, the case raises fair questions: How did a sponsor promoted as a win for the region end up here? Is the tournament at risk? And what should travelers take away from it?

How ONEflight became the face of Myrtle Beach golf

Myrtle Beach waited a long time for a PGA Tour event. The Classic was the first Tour stop in the city’s history and the first major professional tournament on the Grand Strand in roughly a quarter century [Myrtle Beach Classic, 2026]. It launched in 2024 under a four-year deal that runs through the 2027 tournament, incorporating Myrtle Beach’s PGA Tour event into the region’s golfing legacy [On The Green Magazine, 2025].

In early 2025, Visit Myrtle Beach — the tourism arm of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce — brought ONEflight on as co-title sponsor in a three-year agreement covering the rest of that contract [On The Green Magazine, 2025]. CEO Ferren Rajput told Myrtle Beach City Council that a title sponsorship was something he had wanted for years [WBTW, 2025]. At the formal announcement, he repeatedly likened Myrtle Beach’s potential to that of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the West Coast [MyHorryNews, 2025].

By most visible measures, the partnership delivered. Tourism officials credited the 2025 tournament with $15.8 million in economic impact, with 58 percent of attendees traveling in from elsewhere and more than 9,600 hotel room nights booked across the Grand Strand [Visit Myrtle Beach, 2025]. The event went on to win South Carolina’s Governor’s Cup award for tourism [SportFive, 2026], and organizers handed $225,000 to nine local charities, including the Boys and Girls Club of Myrtle Beach [Spectrum News, 2025]. This May, veteran Brandt Snedeker lifted the 2026 trophy [MyHorryNews, 2026].

Behind that polished picture, however, the customers now in court describe a company whose finances were coming apart.

What the lawsuits claim

The three suits were filed within a week of each other: by California customer Jeremy Ricks on Sept. 20, by Illinois audiovisual company Five-Star on Sept. 22, and by Florida couple Kamran and Shari Jinnah on Sept. 25 [Post and Courier, 2026]. Each names ONEflight and Rajput as defendants, and the Ricks complaint also names two sales executives [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026]. Together, the plaintiffs say they put more than $1 million into prepaid, non-refundable flight deposits, and court records estimate the company cannot return roughly $150 million in customer deposits overall [Post and Courier, 2026].

The individual claims follow a similar pattern:

Jeremy Ricks says that from May 2025 through September 2026, whenever he asked whether the company was financially stable, he was told his deposits were safe [WPDE, 2026]. He reportedly spent about $200,000 on flights [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026].
Five-Star alleges ONEflight is holding at least $223,000 of its prepaid money for flights that will never happen [WBTW, 2026]. According to the suit, a salesperson sought another $250,000 deposit just a week before the shutdown [Post and Courier, 2026].
The Jinnahs contend the company has kept more than $800,000 of their money, counting both cash and promotional flight credits [WBTW, 2026].

The most pointed detail for Myrtle Beach readers is how the tournament itself allegedly figured into the sales pitch. Ricks’ complaint says the sales team leaned heavily on the company’s sports sponsorships — including the Grand Strand event — and its celebrity brand ambassadors to persuade him the business was thriving [Post and Courier, 2026]. Court filings describe memberships priced between $50,000 and $160,000, plus a $15,000 initiation fee, with optional add-ons that promised meet-and-greets with entertainment and sports figures [Post and Courier, 2026].

The company’s own explanations, offered just days before it grounded its flights, tell a different story.

Warning signs before the shutdown

In early September, Rajput told an industry publication that ONEflight was cutting unnecessary costs, attributed its financial and operational problems to the tenure of a former chief financial officer, and said revenue was on track to grow sharply [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026]. According to court records, he has claimed revenue rose to $232 million in 2025, a jump he partly credited to sports sponsorships [Post and Courier, 2026].

Other signals pointed the other way. Charter operators said the broker had fallen behind on what it owed them, in some cases by six figures, and the company had been borrowing against future receivables, including selling $2.29 million in future receipts to a lender [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026]. ONEflight briefly added a 35 percent surcharge to reservations before reversing it after customers objected, and its current CFO has been in federal immigration custody since Sept. 3 [Post and Courier, 2026]. Rajput has said that detention is unrelated to the company [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026]. The Ricks complaint also points to the U.S. war with Iran, which drove up aviation costs while customers’ prepaid hours stayed locked at older rates [Post and Courier, 2026].

That last point gets at why prepaid travel businesses can unravel quickly. Jet card brokers collect cash up front and pay operators later, and industry observers say brokers typically spend 80 to 90 percent of their revenue paying for the flights themselves [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026]. When costs climb and the margin disappears, a company in that position can only keep up if fresh deposits keep arriving. That is precisely the dynamic the plaintiffs describe. Whether it adds up to fraud or to a business that simply failed is the question the courts will have to answer.

For visitors, though, the more immediate question is what happens to the tournament that carries ONEflight’s name.

Is the Myrtle Beach Classic in trouble?

Organizers say no. A tournament spokesman said in late September that they remain committed to the event, which is scheduled for May 13–16, 2027, at The Dunes [Post and Courier, 2026]. Visit Myrtle Beach President Stuart Butler said the chamber is excited to keep sponsoring the tournament next year and to keep working with the PGA Tour, The Dunes and operator SportFive [WBTW, 2026]. The official tournament website was still promoting 2027 hospitality packages and the celebrity pro-am under the ONEflight name [Myrtle Beach Classic, 2026].

There are real reasons for that confidence. The tournament is run day to day by SportFive, not ONEflight [On The Green Magazine, 2025], and Visit Myrtle Beach remains a co-title sponsor, so the event has more than one anchor. The harder issue is timing: 2027 is the final year of the current agreement [MyHorryNews, 2026], and any talks about keeping the Tour in Myrtle Beach beyond that now happen with a title partner under a legal cloud.

Golf has seen a version of this before. Texas financier Allen Stanford once sponsored PGA Tour and LPGA events, and in 2012 he was convicted in a roughly $7 billion Ponzi scheme [Geoff Shackelford, 2012]. Afterward, a court-appointed receiver sued sponsorship recipients, including Tour player David Toms, to recover money — without accusing them of knowing about the fraud [Courthouse News Service, 2011]. No one has made a claim like that against the Myrtle Beach Classic, and ONEflight has not been reported to have filed for bankruptcy. But the Stanford saga is a reminder that when a sponsor collapses, the fallout can reach well past its own customers. If ONEflight does end up in bankruptcy, clients holding prepaid flights would likely stand in line as unsecured creditors [Private Jet Card Comparisons, 2026].

What this means if you’re visiting

For the vast majority of tourists, nothing about a spring golf trip changes. Tournament tickets and hospitality are sold through the event, not through ONEflight, and the 2027 dates remain on the calendar [Myrtle Beach Classic, 2026]. Myrtle Beach’s 80-plus golf courses, which the Classic was meant to showcase [WMBF, 2026], are unaffected.

The broader lesson applies to anyone who books travel in advance. The plaintiffs say celebrity ambassadors and big-name sponsorships were used to convince them their money was safe [Post and Courier, 2026]. A logo on a PGA Tour leaderboard is marketing, not a credit rating. Before handing over a large nonrefundable deposit — for a charter, a golf package, or a vacation rental — it is worth paying by credit card where possible, keeping balances small, and checking for complaints or lawsuits against the company.

Conclusion

The ONEflight story connects three things that rarely sit side by side: a beloved hometown golf tournament, luxury travel built on prepaid money, and federal fraud allegations. The lawsuits are only beginning, and ONEflight has yet to respond to them in court. What is already clear is that the company’s sponsorship of Myrtle Beach’s biggest golf event was not just branding — according to the plaintiffs, it was part of the pitch. Tournament and tourism leaders insist the Classic will carry on next May. Whether it does so with ONEflight’s name still on the banner, and whether the PGA Tour stays on the Grand Strand after 2027, are the questions to watch.