The U.S. Attorneyâ€s Office for the Northern District of Georgia has brought an indictment against Lester Jones, the Atlanta Hawks†former senior vice president of financial planning and analysis, charging him with fraud and embezzling $3.8 million from the franchise.
The indictment was unsealed last week and was seen by Mike Vorkunov and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Jones himself pled not guilty and was released on bond, pending trial.
Some of the evidence against Jones came from an audit conducted by the Hawks themselves. The Hawks have not publicly commented on the indictment. From The Athletic:
Jones used his position with the Hawks to build a lavish lifestyle for himself, prosecutors allege. He controlled the teamâ€s American Express card account and had the ability to authorize charges, according to prosecutors, authorized multiple corporate cards for himself and had the ability to charge sums for others.
He reportedly used that power to spend on trips to the Bahamas, Hawaii, Thailand, Switzerland and other countries; paid for a Porsche; and bought tickets to concerts and other events. Now, he is facing a count of federal wire fraud.
Prosecutors allege that Jones went to great lengths to cover up his spending. They say he changed financial reports to hide his use of the companyâ€s corporate cards, faked emails to make his transactions seem legitimate and diverted his personal spending on those cards to the Hawks†team operations.
This case will now proceed through the federal court system.
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