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Former UT football player says Gatlinburg businessman was trying to raid FCA
By Jim Balloch (Contact)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
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Former University of Tennessee and NFL football player Scott Galyon testified Tuesday that he lost $100,000 in a Ponzi scheme run by Gatlinburg businessman Dennis Bolze.
Galyon said Bolze, 60, was trying to raid the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as a source of new investors. Galyon said he was the only one who invested, and he invested only his own money.
“There was never any FCA money invested with Dennis,” said Galyon, who now works for FCA’s Morristown chapter. “He was trying to get into the pockets of the FCA volunteers and board members.”
Galyon testified in a hearing on a civil lawsuit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission against Bolze and his two shell corporations, Centurion Asset Management Inc. and Advanced Trading Services. U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan said he will issue a written order freezing assets of those entities and forbidding them from doing further business.
CFTC Investigator Mike Tallarico testified that while Bolze took in close to $21 million over a period of several years, none of Bolze’s accounts ever traded more than $2 million and never made money.
Galyon said that in September 2008, Bolze was offering to donate back to the FCA a portion of his commission from FCA investors.
“He said he really wanted to help us out,” Galyon said.
Another investor, Gatlinburg builder Ray Whaley, said Bolze had a sarcastic sense of humor and once asked him, “How much can you afford to lose?”
“I thought it was a kind of joking,” said Whaley, whose initial $16,000 investment was followed by investments of money drawn from a home equity line of credit. Whaley testified Tuesday that when he got suspicious and demanded the return of his money, Bolze “got a little agitated” and began offering excuses and delays.
Investor Don Cason, president of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, said he had been investing with Bolze for some time before putting $550,000 with him. Cason also testified that when he and his wife went looking for Bolze at his Gatlinburg mansion on Dec. 20, Bolze’s wife, Kathleen Bolze, was leaving in a black Cadillac escalade loaded with items.
“She said, ‘I have no idea where Dennis is, he’s left,’ ” Cason testified. “She said, ‘Don, don’t you know that he has not traded your money in months? … If you find him, let me know (where he is) so I can quit looking for him.’ ”
Bolze fled Gatlinburg in mid-December. He was arrested on March 12 in Pennsylvania and has been returned to Knoxville. A detention hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Thursday in U.S. District Court on a motion by federal prosecutors to keep him in jail pending trial.
A public defender has been appointed to represent Bolze, who filled out an affidavit stating he has no money.
Jim Balloch can be reached at 865-342-6315.
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