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

• The former CEO of a small Kansas bank was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for looting the bank of $47 million.
• Shan Hanes, pronounced Shane, sent the funds from Heartland Tri-State Bank to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by scammers who had duped him in a "pig butchering" scheme that appealed to his greed, federal prosecutors said.
• The massive embezzlement led to the collapse and FDIC takeover of Heartland Tri-State, one of only five U.S. banks that failed in 2023.

The former CEO of a small Kansas bank was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for looting the bank of $47 million — which he sent to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by scammers who had duped him in a "pig butchering" scheme that appealed to his greed, federal prosecutors said.

The massive embezzlement by ex-CEO Shan Hanes in a series of wire transfers over just eight weeks last year led to the collapse and FDIC takeover of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, one of only five U.S. banks that failed in 2023.

Hanes, 53, also swindled funds from a local church and investment club — and a daughter's college savings account — to transfer money, purportedly to buy cryptocurrency as the scammers insisted they needed more funds to unlock the supposed returns on his investments, according to records from U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kansas.

But Hanes never realized any profit, and lost all of the money he stole, as a result of the scam.

Judge John Broomes on Monday sentenced Hanes to 293 months in prison — 29 months more than what prosecutors requested after he pleaded guilty in May to a single count of embezzlement by a bank officer.

During the sentencing hearing, "I called his actions 'pure evil,' " said Brian Mitchell, who for years was Hanes'