On February 17, former president of the Portland Marathon, Lester Smith, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of wire fraud and tax evasion. In the indictment, Smith, who has led the Portland Marathon as both president and race director since 1982, is accused of embezzling more than $1 million dollars from the race’s coffers to fund his personal luxury lifestyle.
Today, we’ll be looking back at the story of Lester Smith and his time at the Portland Marathon, the legal cases brought against him and the impact events have had on the Portland running community and the Portland Marathon.
With me to discuss the facts and implications from the case is Jeff Manning, a runner and veteran investigative reporter from the Oregonian who has followed the Lester Smith case closely since it first broke in 2018. So stick around for a fascinating dive into the Portland Marathon story.
In this episode:
- How Lester Smith evaded detection to misappropriate more than $1 million from the Portland Marathon from 2012-2018
- Smith's track record at the helm of the race
- Details of Smith's $850k settlement with the Oregon in DoJ in 2018
- The allegations in the federal grand jury indictment brought against him in Feb 2022
- The impact the legal turmoil has had on the local community and the Portland Marathon
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