FBI recovers more than $8m for victims of Kansas bank crypto scheme

Federal law enforcements were able to recover $8.3 million investors lost in a crypto embezzlement case involving the CEO of a Kansas bank.

According to an Associated Press report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation managed to recover the lost funds from a cryptocurrency account held by Tether(USDT) in the Cayman Islands. These funds amounted to $8.3 million in investments belonging to 30 shareholders, including community members who were close to the convicted CEO.

Shan Hanes, the former chief executive of Heartland Tri-State Bank, had been sentenced to 293 months in prison after the court found that he embezzled around $47.1 million in a crypto scheme that led to the bank’s collapse.

Fortunately, the $47.1 million funds were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance, which paid off the victims’ losses. However, the scheme orchestrated by Hanes led to the collapse of Heartland Tri-State Bank and a $9 million loss for its investors.

On Nov. 4, the FBI was able to recover $8.3 million in funds associated with the fraud and award restitution for victims.

“Through Hanes’ conviction and prison sentence, the Department of Justice obtained justice for the victims, and now with this court order, those victims will receive some financial relief,” said U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher in a release.

According to court records, the scam occurred in the summer of 2023. Hanes took out $47.1 million from customer accounts in 11 wire transfers over just eight weeks. He though the payoff was necessary to end investments and cash out on a crypto website, court records said.

Prosecutors said Hanes was tricked into a scam they referred to as “pig butchering” where a third party convinces the victim to invest all their money into cryptocurrency and then making the funds vanish.

Hanes bought what he believed to be $5,000 in cryptocurrency in late 2022, as per the instructions of someone he communicated on WhatsApp with, according to court records. A few months later, he handed over his church and investment club funds before skimming money out of customer accounts, which led to Heartland Tri-State Bank’s collapse.

In August 2024, Hanes was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for embezzling $47.1 million from customer accounts.