George Jones’ widow, Nancy Jones, is reportedly the victim of a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency theft.
The story is still unfolding, but as of now, it looks like Nancy Jones had millions of dollars in crypto and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stolen right from her home. The good news? The Franklin Police Department has already arrested the suspect that is accused of being the thief.
58-year-old Kirk West – the ex-boyfriend of Nancy Jones.
According to reports, Jones reported the missing money and cryptocurrency to the police in Franklin, Tennessee, on July 23. In her initial filing, she estimated that the thief had made off with around $400,000 in cash, and a Ledger cryptocurrency wallet that was stowed in one of her safes. Nancy Jones believes the money and the cryptocurrency was stolen from her around June 26, and accused Kirk West of doing it.
Jones apparently had her granddaughter come to her home on June 26 to help secure cash and jewelry that she had locked away. The country legend’s widow had suspicions that her longtime romantic partner in Kirk West was cheating on her, and suspected that he might have also stolen from her safe.
Sure enough, Jones’ granddaughter discovered that almost half-a-million dollars was missing from the safe, and the Ledger wallet was missing entirely. Reports say that there were 5,534,307 units of XRP (a digital currency) on the wallet. Because cryptocurrency often fluctuates, that translates to be about $11.5 million on the presumed date of theft, and just over $17 million on July 25.
Police immediately opened an investigation after Nancy Jones filed her report, and quickly found out that Kirk West was the only person other than Jones who had a private key to access the crypto wallet. George Jones’ widow was able to recover 5,051,102 XRP with the help of attorneys, but ultimately lost the rest of what she owned – which is valued at around $1.5 million.
Franklin Police were also able to uncover additional information about Jones and West’s relationship, most importantly that Nancy had recently kicked her long-time partner out of the house at the end of June, and they had broken up. Some reports suggest that Kirk West called Nancy Jones and said he’d send back $5 million of her cryptocurrency back to her, but that was “all that he’d do.”
Less than 24 hours after the Franklin Police Department opened their investigation into the incident, they tracked down Kirk West and arrested him. He was taken into custody at the Nashville International Airport on Thursday, July 24. He was hit with a charge of “Theft over $250,000,” and West’s bail was set at $1 million. His court date has been scheduled for October 23.
All in all, it’s a sad situation for Nancy Jones, but it sounds like she and her family were able to catch things early enough to where it wasn’t a total loss. It’s well documented that she helped turn George Jones’ life around after they were married in 1983.
She was determined to save him from his drinking and drug-use ways, and was finally able to convince Jones to give up drinking in 1999. There’s a good chance that Jones – who’s maiden name is Sepulvado – helped extend his life, and at the very least, helped make his remaining years more “on the rails,” so to speak.
Nancy insists that he thrived during the sober portion of his life, and also was better at keeping commitments. They stayed together until he died on April 26, 2013 at the age of 81.
