Sky-high XRP Dispute: From "Crypto Expert" to Court Battle, the Destination of 5.5 Million Tokens Remains a Mystery

【CryptoPush】A family dispute involving over ten million USD worth of crypto assets has recently attracted attention in Tennessee, USA. Defendant Kirk West has filed a lawsuit against Nancy Jones, the widow of country music legend George Jones, for allegedly stealing over $11 million worth of XRP.

The incident dates back to 2013. That year, George Jones passed away. Several years later, West entered Nancy Jones’s life, and the two gradually developed a romantic relationship. West claimed to be a “crypto asset expert” and proactively courted Jones, advising her to allocate funds into various cryptocurrencies such as XRP, ETH, DOGE, SHIB, and XLM. Jones believed him, and her crypto asset accounts gradually grew in size.

However, things took a sharp turn when the relationship ended. West was accused of secretly taking a hardware wallet containing private keys after being evicted from the residence, causing some of Jones’s crypto assets to disappear overnight. The stolen assets included approximately $400,000 in cash and over 5.5 million XRP tokens. West was subsequently arrested.

But West did not plead guilty. In the latest counterclaim, he denied the theft charges, claiming that these crypto assets were accumulated through “successful investments” during their relationship, and he legally holds a partial interest. He even counter-accused Nancy Jones of fraud and defamation.

However, public court records show that Jones ultimately recovered about 5 million XRP. But approximately 483,000 XRP remain unaccounted for, worth several million dollars. The case is still ongoing. In his counterclaim, West requests the division of all assets, including crypto holdings, approximately $5 million in precious metals, and $1 million in cash.