Former Atlanta Hawks senior VP charged with embezzling $3.8M to buy Porsche, tickets – The Athletic
By Mike Vorkunov, Joe Vardon and Sam Amick
Last January, an Atlanta Hawks finance executive sent what seemed like a routine request to the team’s accounting department. He asked that the franchise pay off a $229,968.76 American Express bill for a stay at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas the month before. The Hawks made a detour there for the NBA Cup, where they advanced to the semifinals, and Lester Jones, the team’s senior vice president of financial planning and analysis, wanted the bill paid. A team accountant obliged.
But there was no stay at the Wynn, according to federal prosecutors, and no bill for it. It was allegedly part of a yearslong con by Jones to steal money from the Hawks, who employed him in their finance department for nearly a decade.
Jones, 46, of Atlanta, was charged with fraud and embezzling $3.8 million from the NBA franchise, according to an indictment brought last week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Evidence of his alleged crimes was uncovered through a team-backed audit, multiple league sources told The Athletic.
The Hawks, through a team spokesman, declined to comment, as did the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Jones pleaded not guilty and was released on $10,000 bond last week. He is no longer employed by the Hawks. An attorney for Jones did not return an email or a voicemail request for comment.
Jones was in a romantic relationship with another team employee, multiple league sources said, and he used some of the money he is accused of stealing to buy her expensive gifts. The woman, who could not be reached for comment, also no longer works for the Hawks.
Jones used his position with the Hawks to build a lavish lifestyle for himself, prosecutors allege. He controlled the team’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 company’s corporate cards, faked emails to make his transactions seem legitimate and diverted his personal spending on those cards to the Hawks’ team operations.
When it was time for him to pay the bill from January 2025, prosecutors say Jones falsely changed an email from American Express to trick the Hawks into paying for his personal spending. When he asked a Hawks employee to fill out a reimbursement form for $229,968.76, he said the money had been used on “NBA Emirates Cup, Tickets, Credentials, Logistics, Room.”
The next day, he received a legitimate email from American Express with a bill for roughly that amount. He then sent an altered version of that email to coworkers in the financial department, according to the indictment.
“At least I know the Wynn’s number is right,” Jones wrote.
