Poland – Poland’s oldest and most prestigious golf course has been under the control of an international criminal since 2013, who has been robbing both the official owner and club members for a decade. Now members and the course’s rightful owner are taking steps to rectify the situation.
It has recently come to light that Nimrod Tavi, an Israeli citizen who was given temporary rights to run the golf course in Rajszew in 2013, is in fact a disgraced lawyer who fled from his business partners in the United States and Israel after his fraudulent practices were discovered.
A brief history of a well-known golf course
First Warsaw Golf in Rajszew was one of the first golf courses in Poland to open after the regime change in 1989. Built by Swedes and established as an exclusive club from the very beginning, the course quickly gained a reputation.
In 1999, ownership of First Warsaw Golf was taken over by a now 70-year-old Korean citizen, Mr. Dooson Park. For the next decade he personally managed the course and ran the clubhouse. Unfortunately, in 2010 the area was flooded and the clubhouse burned down in a fire. The property was not insured. A desperate Mr. Park entered into a cooperation with the Israeli publicly listed company Landmark, represented by an Israeli citizen Nimrod Tavi. The subject of the agreement was Tavi’s purchase of a plot of land bordering the golf course, for which Landmark had taken out a mortgage.
Mr. Park, however, was unaware that the Landmark company managed by Tavi was in serious financial trouble after failing to pay off $100 million in bonds. As a result, in 2012 Nimrod Tavi was forced to flee Israel. He eventually took refuge in Poland, which is when he entered into the aforementioned investment with Mr. Park. When Tavi arrived in Poland, he lived in a shed at the entrance to the golf course.
Ownership of the golf course was transferred to a Polish company called NMD Sp. z o.o., in which Mr. Dooson Park was the main shareholder. He sold a 10% stake to – interestingly enough – not Nimrod Tavi, but his wife, French citizen Irène Tavi, née Masson. She was also appointed operator of the golf course, for which, according to the agreement, she was to pay an appropriate fee to NMD Ltd..
Nimrod Tavi received a power of attorney from his wife to represent her interests in the company as well as to manage the course. As a result, he was the one who made the decisions at First Warsaw Golf without taking any responsibility for it.
In this video, recorded in July 2023 by a member of the club, one can see Mr. Tavi’s reaction to the first attempt to shut down the course.
The real face of Tavi
Mr. Park agreed with the Tavi family to purchase the NMD Ltd. shares in tranches. To date, he has received only the first of these in the amount of $15,000. Tavi has also not made a single payment under the operator’s agreement since the beginning. In addition, he has incurred a debt of more than 3 million PLN in unpaid property taxes to the municipality of Jablonna. All in the name of his own wife.
Hiding in Poland from creditors in Israel and the US, Nimrod Tavi has been living at someone else’s expense for the past decade. In the process, he leads a lavish lifestyle, lives in a prestigious location in the centre of Warsaw, and spends considerable sums on entertainment, cars and parties – all financed by the proceeds of a golf course for which he does not pay fees.
But to make matters worse, in 2018 the Tavi family attempted to illegally take over First Warsaw Golf. Irène Tavi, without properly informing shareholders, convened a general meeting of shareholders, at which she raised the company’s share capital by PLN 100,000, thus becoming the majority shareholder. Dooson Park only found out about the fact in 2019, at which point he immediately took action against Nimrod and Irène Tavi.
After a 4-year legal battle and the Tavis skirting the law to prolong the process, the court ruled that Irène Tavi was guilty of illegally increasing the company’s share capital. For this fraudulent act, Irène Tavi is facing criminal charges which will likely lead to her conviction and potential incarceration.
The current condition of the oldest golf course in Poland is worth mentioning. While a competing course in the south of Warsaw enjoys an extensive infrastructure, an elegant clubhouse with an exquisite restaurant, a prestigious hotel with a Wellness & SPA center, a horse farm, a tennis court, an airport for General Aviation and an array of real estate for rent or purchase, the course in Rajszew, Poland has to offer its club members relaxation in a restaurant located in a year-round “tent”.
Aside from two wooden “huts” that serve as office space, this is the only “building” on this 67-acre site. The access to the course itself is along a road densely strewn with potholes, where driving above 15 km/h can result in catching a flat tire or losing your suspension.
The future of the golf course
Irène Tavi faces a number of criminal charges, of which she faces potential imprisonment. Many golf club members in Rajszew resigned their memberships in disgust at the person of Nimrod Tavi and his management style, and instead joined other nearby golf courses. “I just couldn’t stand the sight of [Tavi],” – said one former club member who contacted us. “He made several promises that he didn’t keep, even though I was trying to organize tournaments and bring revenue to the club. I simply had to leave because of his lies and unkept promises. The man has no dignity.”
“The course in Rajszew is by far the best and most interesting in the Warsaw area,” – says another long-time club member. “However, the level of investment made to keep the course in good shape by the current management is definitely substandard. And the clubhouse is a national joke, something that should be on a campground, not an exclusive golf club.”
The legal battle for control of the Rajszew course is currently in court, but the land registry clearly lists Mr. Dooson Park as the owner, who in 2013 entrusted Irène Tavi with the temporary right to manage the golf course. Since then, Mr. Park has not received any agreed dividends, despite the profitability of the course and the fact that he is the majority shareholder.
The course additionally defaulted on payments to the municipality, as well as a number of other creditors. To combat Tavi’s fraudulent actions, Mr. Park had no choice but to close the golf course to clarify the situation and restore order.
Today, the golf course in Rajszew remains closed for safety reasons in accordance with the decision of its rightful owner. Nimrod Tavi, however, does not seem to accept this. With obsessive persistence, he tries to convince everyone of the normal operation of the course, often behaving in an aggressive manner, destroying property belonging to Mr. Park and posing a danger to those in the vicinity.
As a result of his confrontational actions, one person has already been injured, requiring a visit to the emergency room, where four stitches were inserted.
“I returned to Poland from Korea after ten years to regain control of my golf course,” said Park, “and I believe we are on the right track with our new management team and by giving the course a new name, Warsaw National Golf Club, which will ultimately bring a renewed sense of pride and loyalty to our members as well as the Polish golf community. I firmly believe that we will emerge from the current turmoil with a reinvigorated sense of purpose and that we will once again be the leading golf club in Poland.”
