A former employee of the Augusta National Golf Club has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for stealing Masters golf tournament merchandise and memorabilia. Richard Brendan Globensky, 40, from Evans, Georgia, admitted to transporting and transferring stolen goods across state lines. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman also ordered him to pay $3,448,842 in restitution to Augusta National.
The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, along with Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Chicago Field Office. The FBI’s Art Crime Team provided valuable assistance in the case.
Globensky confessed that between 2009 and 2022 he stole various items while working as a warehouse assistant at the club. The stolen goods included Masters shirts, hats, flags, watches, and other merchandise. He also took historically significant memorabilia such as Green Jackets awarded to tournament winners Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, and Ben Hogan. Globensky sold these items to an online broker in Florida for approximately $5.3 million and nearly $300,000 worth of memorabilia to the same broker and an associate.
The brokers later resold the stolen items at higher prices. At least one item ended up with a collector in Chicago.
Over six years of criminal activity, Globensky spent over $370,000 on vehicles and a motorboat and more than $160,000 on Walt Disney-themed vacations. He also invested nearly $600,000 in building a custom home in Georgia and about $32,000 at luxury retailer Louis Vuitton.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hayes stated that "the funds Globensky obtained enabled him and his spouse to live a lifestyle far beyond their means," adding that "the manner in which he spent the proceeds suggests greed was his primary motivation for committing the offense."