CEO of Bank Involved In Pig Butchering Scheme Charged With Embezzling $47 Million
In a startling breach of trust, the CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank is facing charges for orchestrating an embezzlement of $47 million. The high-profile case came to light following revelations that the bank played a central role in a sophisticated ‘pig butchering’ scheme, according to a February 12 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Shan Hanes, former CEO of the now-defunct Heartland Tri-State Bank, has been formally charged with one count of bank embezzlement and is facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Hanes is accused of defrauding the bank through a series of wire transfers “to purchase cryptocurrency for his own benefit” between May 2023 and July 2023.
The former CEO was purportedly the target of a “pig butchering” scam, defined by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a scheme wherein “victims invest in supposedly legitimate virtual currency investment opportunities before they are conned out of their money.”
“Scammers refer to victims as ‘pigs,’ and may use fictitious identities, the guise of potential relationships, and elaborate storylines to “fatten up” the victim into believing they are in trusted partnerships before they defraud the victims of their assets—the ‘butchering,’” the statement from FinCEN read.
The exact “pig butchering” scam Hanes was involved in has yet to be publicized.
Hanes was arrested after a new regulatory review revealed that Hanes “executed small cryptocurrency transactions through another bank as early as January 2023” involving “personal funds and funds potentially belonging to other entities.”
Report: Material Loss Review of Heartland Tri-State Bankhttps://t.co/uzPSZ9nRQT
— Federal Reserve-CFPB OIG (@OIGFedCFPB) February 12, 2024
When Hanes was asked to
Read more on cryptonews.com
