Atlanta, GA – Wednesday, November 5, 2025 – A former senior vice president of finance for the Atlanta Hawks NBA franchise has been indicted on federal wire-fraud charges after prosecutors allege he systematically looted more than $3.8 million from the team to fund a years-long extravagance of private-jet travel, designer wardrobes, exotic vacations, and courtside entertainment.
Lester T. Jones Jr., 42, of suburban Atlanta, appeared in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia last Wednesday, October 29, where he entered a plea of not guilty before Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas. Bond was set at $50,000 unsecured, and Jones was released under pretrial supervision that includes electronic monitoring, surrender of his passport, and a prohibition on opening new lines of credit. On Friday, November 1, Chief Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. issued a scheduling order requiring Jones to declare within 15 days—by November 15—whether he intends to proceed to jury trial or change his plea to guilty.
The single-count indictment, unsealed October 28, accuses Jones of one representative act of wire fraud involving a $229,847 American Express payment the Hawks wired on December 20, 2023. Prosecutors say the payment settled a corporate-card bill Jones had deliberately inflated with personal charges, then disguised by doctoring an email chain to make it appear the expenses were legitimate team costs incurred at the Wynn Las Vegas during the inaugural NBA Emirates Cup.
According to the 19-page criminal information filed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly K. McFreddies and Alex R. Sistla, the Wynn ruse was merely one of dozens. Between March 2016 and June 2025—Jones’s entire nine-year tenure in the Hawks’ accounting and finance department—he allegedly:
Submitted at least 47 falsified expense reports backed by counterfeit or altered invoices from hotels, airlines, and retailers.
Charged $1.17 million in personal airfare and private-jet bookings to corporate American Express cards, including round-trips to Nassau, Bahamas; San José, Costa Rica; Honolulu, Hawaii; Cancún, Mexico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Zurich, Switzerland; and Bangkok, Thailand.
Racked up $487,000 on luxury accommodations, among them $94,000 in one week at the Four Seasons Maui and $62,000 at the St. Regis Punta Mita.
Spent $312,000 on Louis Vuitton handbags, shoes, and luggage, often purchasing multiple identical items on the same day in different cities.
Financed $268,000 in Porsche lease payments, maintenance, and after-market upgrades for a 2023 911 Turbo S registered in his wife’s name.
Purchased $174,000 in jewelry from Cartier and Tiffany & Co., including a $38,000 diamond tennis bracelet delivered to his home address.
Acquired premium tickets to Coachella, the Masters Tournament, Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, and 2023 NBA Finals games in Denver and Miami—seats the Hawks never authorized or used.
Court documents describe how Jones exploited a blind spot in the Hawks’ Concur expense-reimbursement platform. Prior to a July 2024 software update, line-item American Express transactions were not visible to the accounts-payable staff who approved submissions. As the department’s senior-most officer and the named administrator on the Amex account, Jones alone could see the raw charges. He allegedly attached innocuous cover emails—sometimes copying and pasting signatures from legitimate vendors—while the true merchant codes revealed personal splurges.
One illustrative example cited in the filing: On March 12, 2024, Jones flew first-class to Bangkok on Delta and Qatar Airways, billing the Hawks $18,730. He then stayed nine nights at the Mandarin Oriental, charging $26,410, followed by $9,200 at a Phuket beach villa. The entire $54,340 tab was submitted under the pretext of “scouting international sponsorship venues.” Attached to the Concur entry was a forged letter on “Hawks Global Partnerships” letterhead bearing the electronic signature of a colleague who, investigators later learned, was on maternity leave in Portugal at the time.
FBI Special Agent Megan Walsh, who swore the supporting affidavit, said digital forensics recovered 312 deleted Outlook items from Jones’s work laptop showing original receipts addressed to his personal Gmail account. Bank records further trace $1.9 million in embezzled reimbursements flowing into a Wells Fargo account held jointly with his spouse, from which ATM withdrawals and Venmo transfers funded the couple’s visible lifestyle on Instagram—posts that have since been scrubbed.
The scheme unraveled in May 2025 when a new junior accountant flagged a $41,000 Amex charge at the Bellagio Fountain Club for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The event occurred on a weekend the Hawks played in Phoenix, and no executive travel log listed Jones in Nevada. An internal audit launched by Chief Financial Officer Michelle Davies uncovered the pattern. The team quietly suspended Jones on June 10, terminated him June 27, and referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office on July 11.
Hawks ownership group Tony Ressler and Grant Hill released a joint statement Tuesday: “The organization is deeply disappointed by the alleged betrayal of trust. We have cooperated fully with law enforcement and have already implemented enhanced controls, including real-time transaction visibility and mandatory secondary approval for charges over $5,000.”
If convicted on the wire-fraud count, Jones faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain, and mandatory restitution of $3,812,446—the exact figure prosecutors calculated using Amex merchant logs. Sentencing guidelines, based on loss amount and abuse of trust, project 51–63 months before any cooperation credit.
Defense counsel Drew Findling, reached outside the Moores Federal Courthouse, told reporters: “Mr. Jones maintains his innocence and looks forward to his day in court. Many of these expenditures were tied to legitimate entertainment of league partners and will be explained fully at trial.”
The case is docketed as USA v. Jones, 1:25-cr-00427-TCB. Jury selection, if the case proceeds, is tentatively calendared for February 2026 before Judge Batten.
