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Crypto 'pig butchering' scam wrecks bank, sends ex-CEO to prison for 24 years

Heartland Tri-State Bank in Kansas failed after CEO Shan Hanes caused $47 million in wire transfers to be sent to scammers running a pig butchering scheme.

During the sentencing hearing, "I called his actions 'pure evil,' " said Brian Mitchell, who for years was Hanes' next-door neighbor in Elkhart, a town of 2,000 or so people in southwestern Kansas, north of the Oklahoma panhandle. Hanes initially used personal funds to buy crypto, but in early 20233 he stole $40,000 from Elkhart Church of Christ and $10,000 from the Santa Fe Investment Club, according to prosecutors and a defense filing. Hanes then hold him he had been in touch with a banker in Denver named "Jim" and "another guy in Oklahoma" and they had invested in crypto held in Coinbase accounts, where they had made a lot of money, Mitchell said.

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