Shan Hanes, the former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank, was sentenced to nearly 25 years in prison on Friday for masterminding a $47 million cryptocurrency fraud that collapsed the bank.
Imagine being a small-town bank CEO whom everybody trusts, and one day you just decide to toss that all out the window in pursuit of a quick cryptocurrency payday.
Does that sound ridiculous to you? Well, that is exactly what happened with Shan Hanes, the former big cheese at Heartland Tri-State Bank.
Hanes had gone rogue and embezzled over $47 million in a crypto scam that led to the bank’s collapse, rather than protect his bank and its customers., He laundered the money through what is known as a “pig butchering” scam—a cruel trick where scammers lure victims into investing in fake cryptocurrency deals and then disappear with their cash.
This time, though, losses were staggering: $9 million down the drain for investors and a whopping $47.1 million that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation swallowed.
The hammer came hard on Hanes—he was sentenced to almost 25 years in prison.
The feds didn’t pull any punches, where Special Agent Justin R. Bundy said that Hanes’ betrayal led to the bank’s failure. It’s one thing to give a person your money to invest; it is another thing altogether that such trust be shattered.
It was not lacking in appropriate rebuke, however.
The FBI’s Stephen Cyrus weighed in to note how Hanes had turned his back on the role he should have been playing in the community, instead of safeguarding it from financial predators, he became one of them.
The “get rich quick” scheme did not only destroy his career but also put his entire community’s financial well-being at risk.
U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher did not mince any words either as she called out Hanes for his boundless greed and the way his actions shook confidence in the banking system as a whole.
So, what do you think about Shan Hanes and his 293-month sentence?
It’s just one of those crazy stories that must be leaving so many people wondering just how far folks will go to get quick cash.
