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The ex-CEO of a small bank reportedly sent shockwaves through a small American community when he fell for an elaborate crypto scam, causing over $47 million in damages and wiping out generational wealth.
In August of last year, Shan Hanes, the former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank (HTSB) in Elkhart, Kansas, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for funneling the bank’s money into a cryptocurrency scheme that turned out to be a blatant scam.
The Justice Department said that Hanes had fallen victim to a pig butchering scheme, a widespread type of scheme where scammers build relationships with their targeted victims to lure them into making fraudulent investments.
A new report from the New York Times details how the collapse of the bank – in which many townspeople held investments – affected the community.
In July of 2023, the Kansas banking commissioner showed up at the bank to announce that the lender would be shut down and transferred over to a new company. While the deposits were insured, shares of HTSB had become completely worthless, erasing many of Elkhart residents’ retirements, savings and emergency funds.
Jim Tucker, who served on HTSB’s board with his father, described how Hanes repeatedly convinced his colleagues and the community to keep borrowing money to “invest” in the scam. The Tucker family lost $1.4 million worth of HTSB shares, wealth that was meant to be passed on to their children.
A pair of brothers, Moe and John Houtz, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from HTSB’s collapse.
And Hanes himself drained his own personal savings, then began stealing directly from his local investment club, his church and from HTSB’s reserves.
Says U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher,
“Hanes’ greed knew no bounds. He trespassed his professional obligations, his personal relationships, and federal law. Not only did Shan Hanes betray Heartland Bank and its investors, but his illegal schemes also jeopardized confidence in financial institutions.”
