PGA Tour Sponsor ONEflight International Faces Three Lawsuits Alleging Ponzi-Like Scheme After Abruptly Pausing Operations

ONEflight International, a private jet charter company based in Englewood, Colorado, is facing three separate lawsuits filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado alleging it ran a Ponzi-like scheme. The company is the title sponsor of the PGA Tour's Oneflight Myrtle Beach Classic for the past two seasons. ONEflight posted a notice on its website stating it is "pausing all flight activity for the next 30 days, or until further notice" while it conducts a comprehensive evaluation of its operations; one lawsuit states services were suspended on or around September 16 without prior notice to customers.

All three lawsuits name both the company and its founder and CEO, Ferren Rajput, alleging fraud and breaches of contract. Collectively, the suits allege ONEflight is withholding at least $150 million in customer deposits. Illinois-based Five-Star Audiovisual Inc. alleges ONEflight is holding at least $223,000 of its prepaid funds intended for future flights. Jeremy Ricks of California alleges that ONEflight "used customer funds to service obligations to earlier customers and fund marketing and sponsorship campaigns for various groups, including the PGA Tour and McLaren F1 team." Kamran and Sharri Jinnah allege ONEflight has "wrongfully retained" over $800,000 of their money, including cash payments and promotional credits.

Visit Myrtle Beach, co-title sponsor of the tournament, said it plans to continue its involvement with the event in 2027, scheduled for May 13–16 at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club. "Visit Myrtle Beach is excited to continue its sponsorship of the tournament in 2027," said Visit Myrtle Beach President Stuart Butler. On October 1, the tournament awarded $225,000 in donations to eight local charities, bringing its three-year donation total to $675,000. The 2026 tournament was reported to have had an economic impact of close to $20 million on the local area.

Charter operators that take large prepaid deposits for future flight hours carry a structural vulnerability: if new deposits are used to cover obligations to earlier customers rather than held against specific future service, the arrangement depends on continuous inflows to stay solvent. The allegation in the Ricks lawsuit, that customer funds also financed marketing and sponsorship commitments including a PGA Tour title sponsorship and a McLaren F1 tie-in, points to exactly that kind of commingling, where deposit liabilities and discretionary brand spending draw from the same pool of cash.

This is the second high-profile instability episode in the jet-card and deposit-based charter segment in recent years, and it illustrates why counterparties — from golf tournament sponsors to corporate charter clients — increasingly separate brand exposure from financial exposure when a sponsor's core business model relies on prepaid balances. Visit Myrtle Beach's decision to continue as co-title sponsor into 2027 while litigation proceeds against its fellow sponsor shows that event organizers can treat sponsorship continuity and a sponsor's financial health as distinct questions, at least in the near term.

What happens next will turn on the outcome of the three federal suits, whether additional customers file similar claims, and whether ONEflight's 30-day pause extends into a longer suspension or wind-down. The scale of the alleged shortfall, at least $150 million against individual claims ranging from roughly $223,000 to over $800,000, suggests the number of affected customers could grow as the litigation proceeds.