Jason Smith speaks...

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

His side of the story... Part 1

http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/36612434.html
Jason Smith Speaks- Part One Posted: 11:35 PM Dec 22, 2008
Last Updated: 11:41 PM Dec 22, 2008
Reporter: Ryan Dearbone
Email Address: ryan.dearbone@wbko.com

Tuesday morning, former fugitive Jason Smith will finally come face-to-face with the Warren County legal system.

Before Smith's arraignment, he spoke exclusively with WBKO about the allegations he wrote bad checks... then skipped town.


The 25-year-old told WBKO while he may be guilty of writing bad checks but he's not guilty of trying to scam a town.

"No, that was never the case. If I had planned on coming down to Bowling Green and making a mockery of the city and running, I would have never had myself out there like I was," says Jason Smith.

Smith says he was living in Leitchfield with his fiancee and daughter when the opportunity to own an American Basketball Association franchise came along.

"The owner of the Los Angeles Beat, an ABA team, I know him, told me about the ABA and told Joe Newman about me and the NAFL football down in Memphis," explains Smith.

After talking to ABA owner Newman, Smith says he was given the "go-ahead" by First Tennessee Bank in Memphis, to create "S & N Incorporated" to run the newly-created "Kentucky Mavericks".

But shortly after Smith began writing checks amounting to more than $100,000 to vendors, he says his bank changed its tune.

"I think about halfway through this thing going down, there was a letter sent to my mom's house stating that it's not a good thing we cannot fund a company that's out-of-state," notes Smith.

If I had've known that if I wrote a $10,000 check that it would have bounced, then it would have never been written.

Smith says he was in contact with several of the vendors he failed to pay during that time.

However, with larger bills coming at him, such as the bill for the ABA leasing fee, he says it was harder to pay them all off at once.

He says over the last few months he has fixed things with Newman.

But Smith hasn't had a chance to talk to former "Mavericks" co-worker and current "Kentucky Bisons" owner Jay Sills.

"I would love to sit down and apologize to Jay. Let him know that I never meant to put him in the line of fire. Because when you look at the situation, there's no one to blame but me," admits Smith.

Smith says he's finally prepared to make amends.

"All I want to do is work with whatever we got to do here starting tomorrow in court and get this taken care of so I can get these people paid so I can go back to Leitchfield and live my life," Smith says.

Smith was arrested in Memphis and extradited back to Bowling Green last week.

But why didn't he turn himself in like he promised to months ago?

"When everything was finished and done I planned on turning myself in and actually I wanted to do it after Christmas. You can't hide from the being a fugitive from justice when you're all over the Internet," notes Smith.

Tuesday night at 10, WBKO will have much more from the one-on-one interview with Jason Smith on why he really went to Memphis and why he was involved in a multi-million dollar real estate deal in Tennessee.

The Los Angeles Beat? Do people just make up random team names for the ABA?

[Sam Hill]

"When everything was finished and done I planned on turning myself in and actually I wanted to do it after Christmas."

Well, lah tee dah. The justice system works on your timetables, not theirs now. How convenient.

[meyes]

Maybe if he had been talking to the owner of the Utica Wreckers....

[nksports]

such as the bill for the ABA leasing fee

What in the wide world of sports is that? Is it above and beyond the market reservation fee?

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/36670829.html

Jason Smith says prior to the revelation of his bounced checks, he had already planned to step down as President and CEO of the "Kentucky Mavericks" to attend to family matters.

Smith speaks out about what those issues were and how they led to him finally being arrested.

Jason Smith says he had no choice but to go back home to Memphis.

"When I got back to Memphis that situation had grown totally grown out of control that my family was looking to lose a lot of property in foreclosure. I knew that if I had come back to face this right now, I wouldn't be able to be of help to my parents," Smith says.

Smith told WBKO he felt he had to go home to tend to their family problems even though the spotlight on him was starting to get brighter.

"I was thinking of my livelihood because if we would have lost everything in Memphis I would have lost everything also. I have to support my fiancee and daughter back in Leitchfield, so I could just not forget my family," states Smith.

But coming back to Bowling Green and paying off his debt was something Smith says he always planned to do.

"When everything was finished and done, I planned on turning myself in and actually I wanted to do it after Christmas. You can't hide from being a fugitive from justice when you're all over the Internet," admits Smith.

The former "Mavericks" owner says he was with family in Dyersburg, Tennessee selling one of the apartment properties that hadn't been foreclosed on by the bank.

He says the Realtor hired Park's Limousine to take Smith and his family between Memphis and Little Rock, Arkansas as the deal to close on the multi-million dollar sale was negotiated.

But Smith disputes the fact he should pay the limo driver any money at all.

"If someone else hired you to drive me, whey would I pay you? I did not hire him. He was not hired by me. And when I got a bill from him, it shocked me as well as my mom," Smith notes.

Smith also says he used his own credit card to attempt to pay the limo company... not someone else's.

"That was not another person's credit card. That was my credit card," he stresses.

The 25-year-old says after the limo driver and fleet owner, Barrett Betts, overheard a conversation Smith had with his mom, Smith came clean to Betts and then the authorities were called.

Smith faces up to 20 years for "Theft By Deception", and he says he understands some people want to see him serve every bit of it.

Yet Smith says he just wants a chance to change people's negative opinions of him.

"If I was to just get released and do nothing then I would expect that. But if I'm released back to my family, my fiancee and my daughter and I've paid my debt, they can't say "there goes the guy that swindled half of Bowling Green," Smith explains.

Smith was arraigned in Judge John Grise's courtroom Tuesday morning.

His case is set for a "pre-trial conference" scheduled for February 2, 2009.

[SignGuyDino]

"When everything was finished and done I planned on turning myself in and actually I wanted to do it after Christmas. You can't hide from the being a fugitive from justice when you're all over the Internet," notes Smith.


Joe Newman's done a good job of it so far....

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

how long until Joe adds this guy to his WB(S)C board?
http://www.stategazette.com/story/1488828.html

Dyersburg realtor duped by Kentucky fugitive
Friday, December 26, 2008

A man who planned to buy $4 million worth of Dyersburg rental property is now sitting in a Kentucky jail.
He ended up there after a Dyersburg alderman and realtor began questioning the man's claims. Shannon Walker of All-Star Real Estate made a few phone calls and searched the Internet, where he found the man's photograph on Kentucky's most wanted criminals list. Walker reported the man's location to the Kentucky State Police.

The man, Jason Smith, was indicted in Bowling Green, Ky., last August for passing more than $100,000 worth of bad checks. He was accused of writing the checks while trying to establish the Kentucky Mavericks, an American Basketball Association team in Bowling Green, according to an article by the Bowling Green Daily News.

Walker said he met Smith on Dec. 1. Smith told Walker his parents and grandparents had died and left him $18 million. He claimed he couldn't spend any of the money without the approval of a board of directors, but a certain amount of that money had to be spent immediately.

Smith traveled with his board of directors - about 10 members of his fiancee's family - in a limousine to look at several Dyersburg properties. Walker said he wrote $4 million worth of contracts on Dyersburg real estate that day. Smith even went so far as to have some of the properties inspected. But Smith never put up the earnest money needed to solidify the contracts.

Walker said Smith gave him a check on a closed account and told him he was planning to get loans to cover the earnest money. Smith gave him the name of a contact at one bank - a person who didn't exist - and then said he was moving to a different bank. An employee at the second bank told Walker that Smith had opened an account but had not yet made a deposit.

"I got real suspicious and started to investigate," Walker said.

Walker called the father of Smith's fiancée in Memphis. The father told Walker that Smith had stolen their checkbooks and credit cards. He'd left his vehicle at the father's house, though. The license plate was from Warren County, Ky., and the biggest town there is Bowling Green. So, Walker went to the Internet and searched for Bowling Green newspapers, where he found articles about Smith, the Kentucky Mavericks and the worthless checks he was accused of passing there.

Walker said he called the Warren County sheriff's department and the sheriff's department called the Bowling Green Police. Neither agency had any outstanding warrants for Smith.

Walker wasn't satisfied with that. He continued searching the Internet and found Smith's photograph on Kentucky's "most wanted" list. He called the Kentucky State Police about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6, told them about his experiences with Smith and gave them Smith's most recent address in Memphis.

The Kentucky State Police called Walker about 9:45 that night to tell him that Smith had been arrested.

Unfortunately, there was no reward for the capture of Smith. Had there been, Walker said he would have shared it with the house inspectors and the limo driver who were never paid for their services.

Walker said he spent a lot of time with Smith and had purchased meals while working with him, but he doesn't feel that he lost anything monetarily.

At least, not like the limo driver did. Walker said Smith paid Barrett Betts with a worthless $6,300 check. Betts, who owns Parks Limousine in Union City, did not return a phone call Tuesday night.

Walker said Betts had driven Smith and his "board of directors" around Dyersburg and to Little Rock, Ark., where he planned to buy more real estate. Walker said he understood that Smith had signed $13.7 million worth of real estate contracts in Little Rock.

Walker said he believes Smith opted for a limousine so that people wouldn't check the license plate on his vehicle. Walker said he learned that the vehicle was stolen and the license plates had expired.

After Smith's arrest, Walker returned to the Internet again and typed Smith's name into the Google search engine. The second entry that appeared that day was a MySpace page featuring Jason Smith. Walker was stunned. It appeared, he said, that Smith had developed the Web page from jail.

Walker said Smith was a "complete gentleman" during their dealings.

[LightningMan]

Wow. Sometimes you just have to admire the brass ones some of these guys have.

[Paul S]

Just another chapter in the EncyclopediaABA.....

but LightningMan is absolutely right, sometimes you just sit back whilst watching this circus and say............wow.