Posted on 07/28/2025 5:10:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Franklin man is accused of stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his ex-girlfriend, the widow of country music legend George Jones. An attorney for Nancy Jones confirmed to News 2 she’s the victim.
Kirk West, 58, was taken into custody at Nashville International Airport on Thursday, July 24, less than 24 hours after the Franklin Police Department started its investigation.
According to an affidavit, Nancy Jones filed a theft report on Wednesday, July 23, saying West stole approximately $400,000 in cash and a Ledger cryptocurrency wallet from two safes inside her home in Franklin around June 26.
Per the court document, Nancy Jones called her granddaughter on June 26 and asked her to secure her jewelry and cash from the safe after she suspected West, her “long-time romantic partner,” was cheating on her.
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The granddaughter discovered the $400,000 in cash was missing from the safe, along with the Ledger wallet, which contained approximately 5,534,307 units of the digital currency XRP, based on the affidavit. Since each token was reportedly valued at approximately $2.10 on the date of the theft, that was $11,622,044.70 worth of crypto at the time. The total value of that stolen crypto has increased to $17,045,665.56 as of Friday, July 25.
Police said West was the only person besides Nancy Jones who had the private key, essentially a PIN code, to access the wallet. With the help of attorneys, Nancy Jones was able to recover approximately 5,051,102 XRP but still lost out on 483,205 XRP. As of publication, the lost cryptocurrency is worth nearly $1.5 million.
According to the court document, Nancy Jones said she kicked West out of the home on June 28. West allegedly called Nancy Jones and told her he would send $5 million of the crypto funds back to her bank account, saying that was all she would get.
Authorities said West was charged with theft over $250,000. His bond was set at $1 million ahead of his Oct. 23 court date.
News 2 obtained a copy of a restraining order against West and the accompanying affidavit, which said Nancy Jones was married to George Jones from 1983 until he died from hypoxic respiratory failure at age 81 on April 26, 2013.
After she listed a home for sale — primarily in an attempt to consolidate and manage her assets and inheritance — in August 2013, Nancy Jones met West when he toured the residence, allegedly representing himself as interested in buying the home, along with a group of investors. Per the court documents, Nancy Jones later learned this was West’s “modus operandi” to meet “wealthy, potentially vulnerable women.”
Based on the complaint, West started texting Nancy Jones, offering her companionship and guidance in the aftermath of her husband’s death. Through their interactions, the country music star’s widow reportedly learned West was not interested in buying her residence, effectively penniless, and didn’t have his own home.
In light of their friendship, Nancy Jones allowed West to move into a separate, upstairs wing of her residence in September 2013 before they began a romantic relationship in October 2013.
According to the court documents, “Given [West’s] insolvency, [Nancy] Jones entirely funded their life together, paying for everything from the pairs’ living expenses to vacations to a new Mercedes-Benz for [West] to drive.”
Per the affidavit, West was previously charged with bank fraud in July 2016, accused of misrepresenting himself as a “real estate investor” to seek loans from Reliant Bank “for the financing of real estate purchases” and “to refinance real estate loans.” In addition, West allegedly inflated his income and net worth and forged proof-of-income documents he later submitted to Reliant Bank.
Nancy Jones reportedly hired representation for West and paid his legal fees over the course of the federal criminal proceedings. In September 2016, he pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and admitted to executing a “scheme and artifice to defraud Reliant Bank,” by and through “false and fraudulent misrepresentations,” in order to obtain money in the custody and control of Reliant Bank, the complaint says.
“As one of the conditions to his Plea Agreement, [West] agreed to pay $935,045.04 in restitution to Reliant Bank for the amount [West] defrauded the bank…A true and correct copy of the Judgment entered in Case No. 3:16-00154 is attached hereto as Exhibit 3, in which the federal district court ordered restitution in the amount of $787,663.68, plus three years of supervised release and one year of house arrest,” the court documents state.
According to the affidavit, West convinced Nancy Jones to pay his restitution obligation, saying he would pay her back over time, but he has yet to do so. Then, while on house arrest at Nancy Jones’ home, West allegedly became a crypto “expert” and persuaded the country music star’s widow to invest in multiple cryptocurrencies, including XLM, DOGE, XRP, SHIB, and Ethereum.
West reportedly helped open the George Jones Museum on Second Avenue in 2015 before it was sold along with George Jones’ name, image and likeness to a Nashville-based investment group. The museum weathered the Christmas Day bombing with minimal damage but the venue closed in December 2021.
She stopped loving him today.
🤣
Well played.
I was going to put that but I thought there must be one that was more clever.
I, too, was gonna post that it sounded like country song material.
I worked with Porter Wagoner’s son and we would take our lunch break and walk down to Possum Holler and talk to George. The guy was a hoot. That place was packed and raucous.
Back when my late wife was very young, George had a reputation for riding his lawn mower up state road 540A about ten miles from my home. The road today is four-lane-with-median and all built up, but back then was two lane and all cattle farms. If you were lucky, the wife would say, you could see him, but you wouldn’t bother him because he was drunk and might run you over.
I didn’t know his wife was still with us.
Very funny!!!
Didn’t he say he rode his lawnmower into town because his license had been suspended for drunk driving? Maybe I’m thinking of someone else . . .
Well, that was his fourth wife. He was married to her for 30 years from 1983 until his death.
This is a capital crime. No Show is an icon.
He got arrested, IIRC.
I think of Pat McCurdy...
Imagine a Picture of me and you, Only you’re not in it
Great song
At first I felt really sorry for her, but then I read “the country music star’s widow reportedly learned West was not interested in buying her residence, effectively penniless, and didn’t have his own home” and she let him move into her place.
Reading the wiki article about George Jones, she sounded like a sharp cookie and managed things for him. I hope she gets her $$ back from the scammer and wises up!
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