The pickleball world was shaken to its core when seasoned referee Ron Ponder accused his friend Rodney “Rocket” Grubbs of swindling them out of a whopping $50 million. Ponder didn’t hold back in labeling Grubbs a “psychopath” for his deceitful actions.
Grubbs had charmed his way into the hearts of many with his winning smile. But behind the facade, it seems, lay a cunning con artist who saw an opportunity to exploit his friends and investors.
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Ponder and others were lured in by Grubbs’ silver tongue and promises of quick riches, only to later discover that their hard-earned money had disappeared into thin air.
When the pair first met at a tournament in Italy in 2018, Grubbs was a ‘really nice guy’ and ‘very outgoing’.
Now, Ponder describes his erstwhile friend as an ‘a**hole’ and a ‘psychopath’.
Grubbs, of Brookville, Indiana, allegedly ensnared hundreds of people and many of his close friends in an $47.5million fraud in which he lured investors into pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into his pickleball business.
The man once dubbed the sport’s ‘ultimate ambassador’ travelled to tournaments across the world touting Pickleball Rocks as ‘the world’s most recognized pickleball apparel brand’.
But authorities say he was issuing promissory notes to people across the country – usually for $25,000 at 12 percent interest over 18 months – that were rarely fulfilled.
The scandal has caused shockwaves across the genteel world of pickleball – a game better known for its friendly face than the big money antics of other established sports.
As Grubbs’ victims demand their former friend be slung in jail, they are left wondering how a retired AT&T worker with an affable, bumbling and God-fearing demeanor could have pulled off such an extraordinary ruse.
The game of pickleball might be expanding, but it is still a relatively small world inhabited by players who bump into familiar faces at various tournaments across the US.
Soon, the secret began to leak.
Ponder says he raised an eyebrow when another player told him he hoped Grubbs would make loads of money selling his T-shirts because he was an investor.
Then, at a tournament in Holly Hill, Florida, in December 2022, it all came spilling out.
Teri Siewert, 67, who had invested $25,000 in 2019, had started to suspect something was up after Grubbs missed yet another payment deadline in September that year.
She began asking other players about him. The first person she asked, Teri says, burst into tears when she claimed Grubbs had taken her money and wouldn’t give it back.
Teri started a Facebook group called ‘From Pickleball Rocks to Prison Rocks’ and soon hundreds of similar tales started pouring in.
Shortly after the group was founded, Teri received a wire transfer from Grubbs of more than $50,000 – accounting for their $25,000 investment plus accrued penalties and interest.
The following day, Teri contacted Matt Foster, an Indianapolis attorney. Foster now represents more than 300 clients with claims against Grubbs going back to the early 2000s.
The one-time ‘pickleball ambassador’ owes a total of $47.5million to more than 500 creditors across more than 30 states and several countries for pickleball and real estate investments, court filings claim.
No one knows where the money has gone. His friends say he never lived a lavish lifestyle.
The securities division of Indiana’s secretary of state issued a cease-and-desist order banning Grubbs from issuing further notes, alleging he was breaking state securities laws.
He was forced into involuntary bankruptcy earlier this year after a group of creditors confronted him during a court hearing in Indianapolis.
Pickleball Rocks has closed and Grubbs has disappeared from the tournament circuit.
In court filings, he claimed assets of $1.6million.
Grubbs hasn’t been charged with a crime, much to his creditors’ frustration.
Teri says it is ‘mind boggling’ he hasn’t been arrested, while Melody believes he ‘should be in jail’.
Grubbs, for his part, has said he never issued a loan he didn’t intend to repay.
In a written response filed in the bankruptcy case in January, Grubbs claimed the name Pickleball Rocks had been ‘greatly diminished’ by gossip and ‘coordinated’ social media attacks by investors.
He said the business could ‘continue to grow’ with good management.
Grubbs even told Ron in text messages, seen by DailyMail.com, that the series of events that had led to his downfall were the work of Satan.
Some of his creditors, including Teri and Walt, managed to claim back what was owed to them, largely through sheer persistence.
Most, however, like Ron and Melody, have not been so lucky.
Social media has not been so sympathetic to their woes, claiming such wealthy, intelligent people should have known better than to fall for such high rates of return on an unsecured item.
In the end, Ponder’s message is clear: trust your instincts, and always be wary of those who seem too good to be true. The pickleball community may have been shaken by Grubbs’ actions, but they will not let one bad apple spoil the bunch.
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