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

So, it seems that the Kansas banker (Shan Hanes) who ripped off tens of millions from his small-town financial institution in Kansas, misplaced a lot of his loot to a pig butchering crypto rip-off, tied to a Philippines name centre, based on a Division of Justice (DoJ) criticism.

Based on the criticism filed on 18 June 2025, the DoJ’s persecutors have initiated a civil forfeiture motion focusing on over $225 million in laundered USDT, tied to Shan Hanes, the disgraced CEO of the Heartland Tri-State Financial institution, embezzling over $47 million from the financial institution, triggering the collapse of the agricultural lender in 2023.

A crypto trade offered crucial data to the DoJ, which led to the regulatory physique figuring out a fancy modus operandi utilized by the scammers to launder unlawful funds.

Authorities have recovered a complete of 93 deposit accounts, the place scammers coerced their victims into depositing USDT. As soon as victims deposited the funds, they circulated by way of as many as 100 middleman wallets to obscure the supply of the funds and to combine deposits from a number of victims.

As soon as they obscured the supply 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 after which reshuffled it amongst 122 further OKX accounts.

BREAKING: Kansas banker Shan Hanes, who stole $47M from Heartland Tri-State Financial institution, misplaced tens of millions to abroad crypto scammers in a DOJ-busted $225M USDT laundering scheme.

• DOJ ties rip-off to name heart• OKX helped hint 200+ wallets• Financial institution collapsed in 2023• Hanes… pic.twitter.com/X6Atn9znlO

— CryptoAI (@QCryptoAI) June 19, 2025

All OKX accounts had been linked by way of shared IP addresses, reusable KYC paperwork, traced to a Manila-based crypto rip-off centre – ITECHNO Specialist Inc.

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

Discover: 9+ Greatest Excessive-Danger, Excessive-Reward Crypto to Purchase in June 2025

Hans Referred to Each as a Perpetrator and a Sufferer

Based on the DoJ criticism, Hanes embezzled tens of millions from the Heartland Tri-State Financial institution from 30 Might to 7 July 2023, a interval that falls between the financial institution’s quarterly regulatory reporting cycles, to keep away from detection. On this time-frame, Hanes initiated 10 wire transfers amounting to just a little over $47.1 million.

The criticism additionally takes under consideration the Federal Reserve’s (FED) report on the collapse of the Heartland Tri-State Financial institution. The regulatory physique discovered a complete of 434 victims of the crypto rip-off, with 60 victims dropping a mixed worth of $19.4 million, roughly.

Heartland Tri-State Financial institution, which held $13.7 million in capital and $139 million in property, had its liquidity affected by Hanes’s actions, which precipitated the financial institution to provoke an emergency borrowing value $21 million.

Consequently, the financial institution was left with a large $35 million gap in its coffers and was shut down by the regulators in July 2023.

Moreover, as earlier reported by CNN, Hanes additionally stole $40,000 from the Elkhart Church of Christ, $10,000 from the Santa Fe Funding Membership, $60,000 from his daughter’s faculty fund and at last, virtually $1 million in shares from the finance agency, Elkhart Monetary.

In August 2024, the court docket sentenced Hanes to 24 years in jail. In the meantime, the DoJ has named him each the perpetrator and a sufferer of this explicit pig butchering rip-off.

Discover: Greatest New Cryptocurrencies to Spend money on 2025

Crypto Rip-off Belongings Headed for FED Holdings

Whereas the bitcoin reserve and the stockpile of different cryptocurrencies should not but in place, the seized USDT is very prone to find yourself within the FED’s crypto stockpile.

The Treasury Division has been auditing the US authorities’s digital asset holdings to find out cryptocurrencies and numerous different digital property that it wants to carry.

Since officers have recovered solely a small proportion of these affected by the rip-off, complete compensation to the victims from the seized USDT stays unsure.