Kirk West, a man from Franklin, Tennessee, has been accused of stealing a large amount of cash and cryptocurrency from Nancy Jones, the widow of country music artist George Jones.
According to a report by Williamson Scene, Police arrested West on July 24 at the Nashville International Airport. He has been charged with theft over $250,000 and is being held on a $1 million bond.
According to police and court records, West is accused of taking around $400,000 in cash and 5,534,307 XRP
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The digital assets were kept in safes inside Jones’s home. Authorities stated that West was the only other person who had the private code to unlock the cryptocurrency wallet.
Nancy Jones had been in a relationship with West for several years after her husband passed away in 2013. Jones said she paid for most of West’s expenses, including travel and luxury items, during their time together. She later claimed that he had misled her about his wealth.
In 2016, West was convicted of bank fraud and served house arrest at Jones’s residence. During that time, he encouraged her to invest in various cryptocurrencies, including XRP, Ethereum
The recent incident was exposed in June, when Jones became suspicious that West was being unfaithful. She asked her granddaughter to check the safes, only to discover the money and crypto wallet were gone.
West allegedly called Jones and said he would return $5 million worth of crypto, but that would be the most she could expect.
While Jones has recovered most of the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of lawyers, about 483,000 XRP, worth around $1 million, remains missing.
Recently, authorities in Australia reported that a 77-year-old widow lost AU$433,000 in an 18-month Bitcoin
