Full Court Heist
Atlanta Hawks senior finance executive Lester T. Jones Jr. is headed to prison after looting his team
This Week In Blunders – April 26-May 2
“Yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones.” – Tyrone Shoelaces
His name was Jones and he had a Basketball Jones.
Lester T. Jones, Jr. received three years and five months in prison this week for embezzling $3.7 million from the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.
Prosecutors say he spent the money on the kind of stuff Americans apparently need to keep up with the Joneses: $80,000 in overseas travel; $99,800 in clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue; a $115,795 diamond ring; $21,888 in Omega watches, and more than $160,000 in tickets to concerts and other events.
Didn’t anyone notice him traveling so often and wearing gaudy baubles before the tab hit $3.7 million?
Probably not, because Jones, 46, was senior vice president of finance, second only to the chief financial officer. And he was the sole administrator of the Hawks’ corporate credit card account with American Express.
Jones ran up huge tabs and covered his tracks like only a senior finance executive knows how to do, according to a charging document to which he plead guilty in December.
