Nashville Bike Week Organizer Has History of Scams

HURRICANE MILLS, TN — She may have been born a coal miner's daughter, but Loretta Lynn is no sucker.

The country music icon's eponymous ranch and campground cut ties this week with a bikers' event that claims it will draw as many as 150,000 visitors to the tiny Humphreys County town of Hurricane Mills, 55 miles west of Nashville.

"Loretta Lynn’s Ranch will no longer be hosting Nashville Bike Week and has officially removed it off our 2017 Calendar of events," a statement posted on the ranch website says. "Loretta Lynn’s Ranch representative states that Nashville Bike Week failed to meet the financial terms of the set forth agreement.

Nashville Bike Week is scheduled for September 14-24 and despite the dispute with the ranch, organizers say the show will go on. Initially, the event's Facebook page denied the claims by the ranch that it had repeatedly missed deposit deadlines and instead said the Tennessee Department of Health "failed" the ranch. Those claims have been removed from Facebook, and the Health Department told NewsChannel 5 that the promoter never applied for a permit. Though the promoter is claiming attendance of 150,000, he told the Health Department he'd sold 4,700 tickets. The state requires permitting if attendance is 5,000 or more. And the Humphreys County Sheriff said he was told to expect more than 10,000.

Meanwhile, a post on the event's Facebook page now says it has secured a new and larger venue "six miles up the road" from the ranch, with the exact location to be revealed Friday.

The man in charge of the event goes by the nom de moto "Mike Axle," but his real name is Michael Leffingwell. Leffingwell has been charged several times in Davidson County for theft. He was sentenced to years of jail time after scamming a home owner by taking a deposit for fencing work and never completing the job or returning the deposit. He's also been charged with similar crimes in Williamson and Maury counties, according to NewsChannel 5.

In 2007, Leffingwell was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered by a U.S. District Court Judge in Missouri to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars in restitution after defrauding numerous companies by presenting himself as a NASCAR truck series driver and signing those companies up for advertising deals for the 2006 NASCAR season. Leffingwell drove in just four NASCAR events between September 2001 and July 2005 and in none after engaging in his scheme. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and for failure to appear.

Leffingwell has also been the subject of numerous Better Business Bureau complaints, not just in Tennessee but in West Virginia as well, typically about uncompleted but paid-for work.

The Humphreys County sheriff told the station he needs to get planning for an event of such a purported size, but Leffingwell has been almost impossible to talk to. Leffingwell agreed to an interview with NewsChannel 5 but then never got back to a reporter. Fox 17 tried to arrange an interview as well, but organizers refused to speak on camera.