In a major cryptocurrency scam, Shan Hanes, the president of a small Kansas town bank, made unauthorized wire transfers totaling over $47 million. He converted the funds into cryptocurrencies, only to lose them to a crypto crime network. The town has been left devastated by the losses. David Yaffe-Bellany tells the story with an engaging narrative.
As he sat in Hanes’s glass-walled office, Mitchell wondered what his friend had gotten himself into. Mitchell was not interested in sending $12 million to a mysterious crypto operation in Hong Kong. “Go there, hire an interpreter and get a cashier’s check,” he told Hanes. “If you think you’ve got $40 million in an account, go get it.” But Hanes seemed to have stopped listening. He was staring past Mitchell into the bank lobby, where his staff was arriving to start the day. He barely reacted when Mitchell offered his verdict: “Shan, I think you’re in a scam.”