atlanta — The former chief financial officer of the Atlanta Hawks is accused of stealing millions of dollars from the NBA team and using the money to pay for travel, luxury clothing, jewelry, car expenses and tickets to concerts and sporting events, federal prosecutors said in a lawsuit.
In a filing last week, prosecutors charged Lester T. Jones Jr. with one count of wire fraud, saying he arranged for the Hawks to pay nearly $230,000 to American Express for “personal expenses fraudulently incurred.” The filing says he is accused of altering an email to make it appear as if the reimbursement request was for expenses he incurred at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas during the NBA Emirates Cup.
Jones also submitted dozens of other fraudulent expense reimbursement requests, including false and altered invoices, debited millions of dollars in personal expenses on business credit cards, and embezzled more than $3.8 million from the Hawks, prosecutors allege. Expenses included travel to the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Switzerland and Thailand, as well as expenses for Louis Vuitton clothing and Porsche cars, the filing says.
Contact information for Jones could not be found. Emails and voicemails seeking comment were sent to an attorney listed in online court records. A Hawks spokesman declined to comment.
Jones pleaded not guilty during his initial court appearance on October 29 and was granted bail, according to court records. The judge in the case on Friday ordered Jones to notify the court within 15 days whether he intends to proceed with trial or plead guilty.
Jones worked in the Hawks’ accounting and finance department from March 2016 until June of this year, where he served as senior vice president of finance starting in August 2021, the filing said. In this position, he was responsible for the company’s credit card account with American Express and managed the electronic expense reimbursement program.
Prior to July 2024, actual transactions and expenses made on the company’s American Express credit cards were not visible in the payment software to company employees who verified the expenses. Prosecutors allege that Jones had insight into the program’s limitations and exploited them for personal gain.