Nancy Jones, wife of country music legend George Jones, was allegedly the victim of a cryptocurrency scam.
A Tennessee man named Kirk West stole Nancy Jones' Ledger wallet and approximately $400,000 in cash, embezzling 5.5 million XRP worth over $17.4 million today, according to police records.
West was taken into custody at Nashville International Airport last Friday. With the recent rise in the price of XRP to $3.65, an investment worth just $35,000 in 2016 has now become a multi-million dollar fortune.
West, who was convicted of two counts of bank fraud in 2016, contacted Nancy Jones during his house arrest. During this time, West, posing as a “cryptocurrency expert,” convinced Jones to invest in several digital assets, including XRP, ETH, DOGE, SHIB, and XLM.
The turning point in the incident occurred just a few weeks ago. West allegedly broke into two safes at Jones's home and stole his Ledger hardware wallet, thus obtaining 5,534,307 XRP.
Most of the stolen XRP has been recovered, but approximately 483,000 XRP, or over $1.5 million in assets at current market value, are still missing.
*This is not investment advice.