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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nancy Jones, the widow of country music star George Jones, is embroiled in a legal battle with her former boyfriend over money and property. Her ex‑boyfriend, Kirk West, is now suing her after she accused him of taking millions of dollars in cash and cryptocurrency.
West was arrested in July at Nashville International Airport after Nancy Jones found her safe was empty. The safe held about $400,000 in cash and a digital wallet that had more than 5.5 million units of a cryptocurrency called XRP. At the time, the XRP was worth more than $11 million. West, a real estate investor, faces theft charges over $250,000 with bond set at $1 million.
Nancy Jones, 78, had a 12-year relationship with West. She says that when they split last year, West took a large amount of her money without her permission. The missing money included hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and millions in digital coins that are cryptocurrency.
Nancy Jones says only she and West knew the PIN code for the wallet. After she discovered the money was missing, she asked police to find out what happened. She also filed a civil lawsuit to get her money back.
West acknowledges the assets existed but says he should get a share. In his countersuit, he says he and Nancy Jones shared assets while they were together. He claims that he helped manage the money and that they agreed to split their assets when their relationship ended. Because of that, he he claims he deserves half of the cash, cryptocurrency and other valuables.
West also says that Nancy Jones’ claims hurt his reputation. He has accused her of defamation and says she misused the legal system, which hurt him socially and financially.
The case is unusual because it involves both digital money and real‑world cash. Experts say crypto cases can be very hard to sort out in court because digital currency is private and hard to trace.
Nancy Jones’ legal team says they have recovered some of the cryptocurrency. But a large amount of the digital money is still missing.
Both sides now await the judge’s decision on how to divide the money and who will have to pay what. The outcome could affect how future cases with crypto and shared assets are handled in court.