Federal prosecutors have accused a former senior financial staffer for the Atlanta Hawks of embezzling more than $3.8 million from the NBA team.
Lester Jones worked for the Hawks from 2016 to June 2025 and was promoted to senior vice president of finance in 2021. A court document alleges Jones made “hundreds of unauthorized transactions” with team credit cards, including a $229,968.76 charge in January he improperly claimed covered team expenses at the NBA Cup. Prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia last week charged Jones with one count of wire fraud.
Representatives for Hawks and Jones did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Jones pleaded not guilty and was released on $10,000 bond.
Jones’s scheme unfolded in two ways, prosecutors say: through expense reimbursements and charges on company credit cards.
Prosecutors say Jones handled the team’s American Express credit card program and oversaw expense reimbursements. “By virtue of his position, defendant Jones had special access to and insight into any limitations with the Company’s internal financial system, which defendant Jones exploited for personal gain,” prosecutors allege in a court filing, including a crucial shortcoming wherein reimbursement staff couldn’t actually see the expenses in their approval platform until July 2024. Jones submitted “dozens” of improper reimbursement requests “including fictitious and altered invoices,” prosecutors allege.
The former staffer also charged “millions of dollars in personal expenses” to team credit cards that were not disclosed or authorized, according to the filing. These charges included trips to the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, and Thailand, plus Louis Vuitton items, jewelry, “Porsche car expenses,” and concert and sports tickets, the filing says. To cover up his spending, Jones altered financial reports and emails, and blamed large balances on team operations.
Jones was also in a romantic relationship with another former Hawks employee for whom he bought expensive gifts using some of the embezzled funds, according to The Athletic.
Prosecutors detail one of Jones’s alleged improper payments from January 2025 for $229,968.76, and included internal emails where he told another employee that “AMEX threatened to cut us off again if I don’t get that one.” The invoice given by Jones listed expenses for “NBA Emirates Cup, Tickets, Credentials, Logistics, Room” at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas on Dec. 12, 2024, but no team credit card or Hawks staffer ever made a charge for that amount, nor did the Wynn Hotel send out an invoice for those expenses, prosecutors allege. The court filing also says Jones altered an email from American Express—inquiring about an overdue balance of $217,942.81—to make it appear to be inquiring about the higher amount at the Wynn. “At least I know the Wynn’s number is right,” he told other employees in the finance department, the filing says.
Jones was not indicted by a grand jury; his charge was presented by prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia through a document called an “information.” Jones waived his right to prosecution by an indictment, meaning his case will proceed based on the prosecutors’ evidence rather than a charge by a grand jury, as guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment. This will speed up the process, and Jones has 15 days from last Friday to either plead guilty or say he will move to trial.
