It started with a message.
In late 2022, Shan Hanes — the CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank, community leader, and part-time preacher from Elkhart, Kansas — received a message on WhatsApp from a woman named Bella.
At first, the chats were friendly — small talk about family and faith. But soon, Bella began sharing screenshots of her success investing in cryptocurrency. She said her aunt ran a trading firm in Australia and invited Hanes to try it himself.
The website she sent looked professional — charts, account balances, even a live customer service chat. Everything about it felt real. Hanes started small, investing just a few thousand dollars. When he logged in days later, his balance had grown. Encouraged, he sent more.
Over the next few months, Hanes invested $1.1 million of his own money, along with $60,000 from his daughter’s college fund, $40,000 from his church, and $10,000 from his investment club. The platform showed his “account” climbing past $200 million.
When he tried to withdraw the funds, the site said the money was frozen — he just needed to send more to unlock it.
In an effort to unfreeze his funds, he wired $3 million of the bank’s money to the crypto platform, telling staff the transfer was to “help a client.” Next, he had the bank borrow $21 million from regional lenders and rerouted that money to the same crypto account. Then he sent another $23 million from the bank’s existing credit lines, again disguised as legitimate business transfers.
Each time, the scammers told him it was the last step before he’d receive his payout. Each time, the money disappeared.
Over the course of eight weeks, Hanes made 11 wire transfers from the bank — a combined total of $47.1 million.
By early July 2023, desperate to recover the fortune he thought he’d earned, Hanes called his longtime friend Brian Mitchell, a local farmer and business owner. He asked for an emergency $12 million loan, explaining that his money was “stuck” in a Hong Kong crypto exchange. Mitchell listened carefully before responding:
“Shan, I think you’re in a scam.”
Undeterred, Hanes didn’t listen. That same day, he wired another $8 million to the crypto platform in one last attempt to unfreeze his account and collect the hundreds of millions he believed were his.
By late July 2023, the illusion was collapsing. Questions from regulators were piling up. Transfers that once looked routine now set off alarms. Inside Heartland Tri-State Bank, staff noticed balances that didn’t make sense — millions moving out with vague explanations.
Then one Friday morning, federal agents arrived.
Unmarked SUVs and government sedans lined the street outside the bank. Inside, FBI agents and state banking officials gathered the employees in the lobby. The message was simple and devastating: the bank was insolvent. Their trusted banker had wired away nearly $50 million chasing a crypto mirage. Hanes was removed from his position and placed under investigation.
While under investigation, Hanes still believed he could recover the missing funds. In January 2024, he flew to Perth, Australia, claiming he was going to meet the crypto contacts — Bella and her supposed partners — who could “release” the frozen money. He stayed in contact with them on WhatsApp until the plane landed. Then their numbers suddenly stopped working. There was no meeting, no firm, no funds. That’s when he finally accepted he’d been scammed.
Hanes later pleaded guilty to embezzlement by a bank officer and was sentenced to 24 years and 5 months in federal prison — the longest white-collar sentence ever handed down in Kansas.
Based on reporting from The New York Times.
Lessons Learned
The goal of this newsletter is to expose the tactics scammers use — so when they try them on you, you’ll recognize the red flags before it’s too late. Shan Hanes’s story is a powerful reminder of how even the most experienced, trusted people can be deceived.
No one is immune. Hanes was the CEO of a bank — a man with decades of financial experience, a respected business leader, a preacher, and the most trusted person in his town. Yet he was manipulated into sending $47 million to overseas criminals. If this man can fall for a scam, anyone in America can fall for a scam.
Crypto scams start as conversations. They rarely begin with a link or a sales pitch. They begin with trust — weeks or months of casual conversation that slowly shift toward “an opportunity.” By the time money enters the picture, the emotional connection is already built.
Fake dashboards create false confidence. Scammers use realistic investment websites that show your balance growing every day. The profits aren’t real — they’re bait. Some are so sophisticated they’ll even let you withdraw small amounts at first to make the investment seem legitimate. That’s how they build trust before asking for larger deposits — the ones you’ll never see again.
Requests to “unlock” your funds are 100% fake. Scammers use endless variations — “unlock fees,” “tax payments,” “tariffs,” “account verifications.” Each one is designed to make you believe you’re this close to getting your money back. The deception becomes a warped reality. Even under investigation, Hanes boarded a flight to Australia still believing he could free his frozen funds. That’s how powerful the manipulation can be.
Never take investment advice from strangers — ever. If a random person online, even one you’ve been chatting with for months, starts talking about crypto or investment opportunities, it’s a scam. No exceptions.
Greed gets you to do stupid things. Hanes thought he had turned a few thousand dollars into more than $200 million. That illusion of easy money drove him to risk everything — his savings, his family’s future, and his community’s trust. When the returns seem impossible, they are.
Don’t trade crypto — the risks are too high. If you’re curious about crypto, go through a trusted financial advisor or broker — not a website or a stranger. Ask about regulated ETFs like IBIT (iShares Bitcoin Trust), BITB (Bitwise Bitcoin ETF), or ETHA (iShares Ethereum Trust). Never send money to online “platforms” or apps that promise quick gains or require deposits to unlock your account.
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