DoJ Files $225M Civil Forfeiture Case Linked to Crypto Scam Perpetrated by Disgraced CEO Shan Hanes

So, it turns out that the Kansas banker (Shan Hanes) who ripped off millions from his small-town bank in Kansas, lost much of his loot to a pig butchering crypto scam, tied to a Philippines call centre, according to a Department of Justice (DoJ) complaint.

According to the complaint filed on 18 June 2025, the DoJ’s persecutors have initiated a civil forfeiture action targeting over $225 million in laundered USDT, tied to Shan Hanes, the disgraced CEO of the Heartland Tri-State Bank, embezzling over $47 million from the bank, triggering the collapse of the agricultural lender in 2023.

A crypto exchange provided critical information to the DoJ, which led to the regulatory body identifying a complex modus operandi used by the scammers to launder illegal funds.

Authorities have recovered a total of 93 deposit accounts, where scammers coerced their victims into depositing USDT. Once victims deposited the funds, they circulated through as many as 100 intermediary wallets to obscure the source of the funds and to mix deposits from multiple victims.

Once they obscured the source of funds, the scammers then transferred these funds to OKX accounts in two reshuffling phases. They initially transferred the fund to 22 OKX holding accounts and then reshuffled it among 122 additional OKX accounts.

BREAKING: Kansas banker Shan Hanes, who stole $47M from Heartland Tri-State Bank, lost millions to overseas crypto scammers in a DOJ-busted $225M USDT laundering scheme.

• DOJ ties scam to call center
• OKX helped trace 200+ wallets
• Bank collapsed in 2023
• Hanes… pic.twitter.com/X6Atn9znlO

— CryptoAI (@QCryptoAI) June 19, 2025

All OKX accounts were linked through shared IP addresses, reusable KYC documents, traced to a Manila-based crypto scam centre – ITECHNO Specialist Inc.

The DoJ has estimated an astronomical $3 billion in transaction volume generated by this Manila-based laundering network.

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Hans Referred to Both as a Perpetrator and a Victim

According to the DoJ complaint, Hanes embezzled millions from the Heartland Tri-State Bank from 30 May to 7 July 2023, a period that falls between the bank’s quarterly regulatory reporting cycles, to avoid detection. In this time frame, Hanes initiated 10 wire transfers amounting to a little over $47.1 million.

The complaint also takes into account the Federal Reserve’s (FED) report on the collapse of the Heartland Tri-State Bank. The regulatory body found a total of 434 victims of the crypto scam, with 60 victims losing a combined value of $19.4 million, approximately.

Heartland Tri-State Bank, which held $13.7 million in capital and $139 million in assets, had its liquidity affected by Hanes’s actions, which caused the bank to initiate an emergency borrowing worth $21 million.

As a result, the bank was left with a giant $35 million hole in its coffers and was shut down by the regulators in July 2023.

Additionally, as earlier reported by CNN, Hanes also stole $40,000 from the Elkhart Church of Christ, $10,000 from the Santa Fe Investment Club, $60,000 from his daughter’s college fund and finally, almost $1 million in stocks from the finance firm, Elkhart Financial.

In August 2024, the court sentenced Hanes to 24 years in prison. Meanwhile, the DoJ has named him both the perpetrator and a victim of this particular pig butchering scam.

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Crypto Scam Assets Headed for FED Holdings

While the bitcoin reserve and the stockpile of other cryptocurrencies are not yet in place, the seized USDT is highly likely to end up in the FED’s crypto stockpile.

The Treasury Department has been auditing the US government’s digital asset holdings to determine cryptocurrencies and various other digital assets that it needs to hold.

Since officials have recovered only a small percentage of those affected by the scam, total compensation to the victims from the seized USDT remains uncertain.

Key Takeaways

Shan Hanes lost $3.3M from his embezzled $47M to a pig butchering scam
Scammers reshuffled stolen funds in two phases linked to a total of 144 OKX accounts
Investigators traced all OKX accounts to a compound in Manila, Philippines

The post DoJ Files $225M Civil Forfeiture Case Linked to Crypto Scam Perpetrated by Disgraced CEO Shan Hanes appeared first on 99Bitcoins.

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