The widow of American singer George Jones was targeted in a theft scheme planned by her ex-boyfriend, resulting in a loss of $17 million XRP.

On July 31, according to FinanceFeeds, Nancy Jones, the widow of American country music legend George Jones, lost $17 million worth of XRP in a scheme orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend Kirk West. West was arrested in July 2025 and allegedly took advantage of his access to Nancy Jones' assets to steal cash and a hardware wallet. Court documents show that West stole over $400,000 in cash and a Ledger hardware wallet containing over 5.5 million XRP tokens from two safes in Nancy Jones' home in Franklin on June 26, 2025. Kirk West, 58, met Nancy Jones shortly after George Jones passed away in 2013, pretended to be wealthy, quickly fell in love with Nancy, and moved into her home. Court documents indicate that West had long lied about his finances and was convicted of bank fraud in 2016, at which time Nancy paid off his debts. West pretended to be very knowledgeable about encryption and persuaded Nancy to invest in XRP, Ethereum, DOGE, and other digital assets. This trust granted him access to her crypto wallet, which facilitated the subsequent theft.