A former high-ranking finance executive for the Atlanta Hawks has been sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison after prosecutors said he quietly siphoned about $3.7 million from the NBA franchise. The punishment follows a sprawling fraud case laid out in federal filings and court records, detailing a long trail of bogus reimbursement claims, altered invoices and personal spending slipped through the team’s expense system.
Lester T. Jones Jr., 46, joined the Hawks’ accounting department in 2016 and was elevated to a senior finance post in 2021. In that role he gained administrative control over the organization’s corporate American Express account and its electronic reimbursement platform. Prosecutors say he exploited that access from early 2021 through June 2025 by submitting sham reimbursement requests and routing personal expenses onto company cards, according to WSB-TV.
Court documents spell out a luxury lifestyle allegedly underwritten by the team’s money, including about $80,000 spent on trips to the Bahamas and Thailand, roughly $99,800 at Saks Fifth Avenue, a $115,795 engagement ring, nearly $21,889 in Omega watches and more than $160,000 on concert and event tickets. Those totals come from filings cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and reported by Atlanta News First.
Hawks Say Trust Was Shattered Inside The Organization
At the sentencing hearing, Hawks Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Scott Wilkinson told the court the scheme inflicted “deep” emotional and cultural damage on staff, saying the fallout has taken months to address, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The outlet also reported that an internal investigation concluded Jones misrepresented his credentials and that some employees were too intimidated to appear in court.
Plea Deal Followed Years Of Suspected Misconduct
Jones pleaded guilty in December 2025 to one count of wire fraud and admitted his role in the scheme, according to CBS News Atlanta. Earlier filings and coverage described related misconduct dating back to 2017, underscoring prosecutors’ view that the fraud was a long-running breach of trust rather than a short-lived lapse.
Prison Time, Payback And Forfeited Bling
The judge ordered Jones to pay nearly $3.9 million in restitution and to report to federal prison within 45 days. After serving his sentence, he will remain on supervised release for three years. Prosecutors said property seized during the investigation, including luxury timepieces, will be forfeited as part of the case resolution, according to Atlanta News First.
The Hawks did not issue an immediate public response to the sentence in the hours after the hearing. The organization has begun reviewing its expense controls and oversight systems, a process described in local reporting that highlights how gaps in card and reimbursement monitoring can allow even a trusted insider to hide large-scale fraud, per CBS News Atlanta.
