Crypto

FBI finds $8.3 million embezzled by ‘pure evil’ Kansas banker in a cryptocurrency account in the Cayman Islands

Published

2 years ago

November 5, 2024

FBI finds .3 million embezzled by ‘pure evil’ Kansas banker in a cryptocurrency account in the Cayman Islands

Sobs of relief broke out in a federal courtroom in Kansas on Monday as dozens of people whose life savings had been embezzled by a bank CEO learned that federal law enforcement had recovered their money.

“I just can’t describe the weight lifted off of us,” said Bart Camilli, 70, who with his wife Cleo had just learned they’d recover close to $450,000 — money Bart began saving at 18 when he bought his first individual retirement account. “It’s life-changing.”

In August, former Kansas bank CEO Shan Hanes was sentenced to 24 years after stealing $47 million from customer accounts and wiring the money to cryptocurrency accounts run by scammers. Prosecutors said Hanes also stole $40,000 from his church, $10,000 from an investment club and $60,000 from his daughter’s college fund and lost $1.1 million of his own in the scheme. Deposits were “jettisoned into the ether,” said prosecutor Aaron Smith.

Hanes’ Heartland Tri-State Bank, drained of cash, was shut down by federal regulators and sold to another financial institution. Customers’ savings and checking accounts amounting to $47.1 million were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which paid off their losses.

But there were still 30 shareholders of the community-owned rural bank Hanes helped found — including his close family friends and neighbors — who thought they lost $8.3 million in investments: well-planned retirements were upended, funds for long-term eldercare gone, education funds and bequests for children and grandchildren zeroed out.

On Monday the shareholders stood to cheer federal Judge John W. Broomes in Wichita after he told them, one at a time, that they’d be paid back in full. The FBI recovered the funds from a cryptocurrency account held by Tether Ltd. in the Cayman Islands.

During an earlier sentencing hearing, these victims had called Hanes a “deceitful cheat and a liar,” and “pure evil.”

Margaret Grice came to court Monday figuring she’d get $1,000 back. Instead, she learned she’d be recovering almost $250,000, her entire 401(k).

“I’m just really thrilled,” she said. “I can breathe.”

Prosecutors said Hanes, who was the CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kansas, lost the money in a scam referred to as “pig butchering,” or the way pigs are fattened before slaughter. In the scam, a third party gains a victims’ trust and, over time, convinces them to invest all of their money into cryptocurrency, which immediately disappears. U.S. and U.N. officials say these schemes are proliferating, with scammers largely in Southeast Asia increasingly taking advantage of Americans.

Hanes started buying what he thought was $5,000 in cryptocurrency in late 2022, communicating with someone who had reached out on WhatsApp, according to court records. A few months later he transferred over his church and investment club funds. Records show the scam accelerated in the summer of 2023, when Hanes wired $47.1 million out of customer accounts in 11 wire transfers over just eight weeks. Each transfer, he thought, was necessary to end the investment and cash out, court records said. He watched, on a fake website, as the money appeared to grow to more than $200 million.

“He was to take some of the money, and the rest of the money was supposed to go back to the bank,” his attorney John Stang explained. “Now it’s fiction, it didn’t exist. We all know that now … It failed big time.”

Hanes, who was not in court Monday, apologized at an earlier sentencing hearing.

“From the deepest depth of my soul, I had no intention of ever causing the harm that I did,” he said. ”I’ll forever struggle to understand how I was duped and how what I thought was just getting the money back was making it worse.”

Prosecutors said Hanes wasn’t just the victim of a scam, he crossed a line when he began taking customers’ money and violating banking regulations. He pleaded guilty to embezzlement by a bank officer in May.

His prominent standing in his hometown of 2,000 made it easier for him to get away with it, a Federal Reserve System investigation found; he had been on the school board, volunteered as a swim meet official, and served on the Kansas Bankers Association.

He also was a banking leader beyond his rural community. In recent years, he testified to Congressional committees about the importance of local banks in farming communities, and he served as a director for the American Bankers Association, which represents almost all banking assets in the U.S.

On Monday, prosecutors said the FDIC wanted to be paid back for the insurance claims it reimbursed to bank customers. But Judge Broomes said the economic circumstances of shareholders “who became insolvent because of a fraud scheme” justified paying them back first, before the FDIC recovers anything.

Hanes, 53, may be in his late 70s when he is released and is unlikely to be able to pay the FDIC the $47.1 million still owed.

In a court filing, Hanes and his attorney tried to explain what had happened.

“Mr. Hanes made some very bad choices after being caught up in an extremely well-run cryptocurrency scam,” they said. “He was the pig that was butchered.”

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Crypto

ADI Foundation and Settlemint Launch ADGM Tokenization Rail for $30.9B RWAs

Published

3 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Press Room

ADI Foundation and Settlemint Launch ADGM Tokenization Rail for .9B RWAs

Integrated Infrastructure for Institutional Adoption

ADI Foundation and Settlemint announced a partnership on May 13 to launch a new digital securities infrastructure on the ADI Chain, aiming to streamline the tokenization of assets within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) regulatory framework.

The collaboration integrates ADI Foundation’s compliance-ready Layer-2 blockchain with Settlemint’s digital asset lifecycle platform (DALP). The combined system is designed to handle the entire lifespan of a digital security, from initial token creation and on-chain recording to post-trade servicing and management.

The move addresses a primary hurdle for institutional investors: the difficulty of coordinating issuance, trading, settlement, and custody across fragmented jurisdictions. By providing an integrated architecture, the partners aim to offer a unified pathway for institutions to move traditional assets onto the blockchain.

“The future of investment and trading will not only be digitized, but also available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Andrey Lazorenko, CEO of ADI Foundation. “Our partnership brings together market infrastructure, institutional-grade blockchain, and a digital asset lifecycle platform to tokenize equities and trade them on secondary platforms.”

According to a media statement, the platform utilizes Settlemint’s implementation of the ERC-3643 standard—a protocol specifically designed for security tokens to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. While the partnership is initially focusing on equity tokenization, the infrastructure is built to support a variety of other tokenized securities and financial instruments, pending regulatory approval.

The announcement comes as institutional interest in real-world assets ( RWAs) on-chain continues to accelerate. According to data from RWA.xyz, tokenized RWAs currently represent approximately $30.92 billion in on-chain value, with tokenized U.S. Treasuries accounting for roughly $15.20 billion of that total. Market analysts expect this trend to scale significantly. A 2026 analysis by BCG suggests the digital asset market could surge from $0.6 trillion in 2025 to $18.9 trillion by 2033.

Matthew Van Niekerk, co-founder and president of Settlemint, characterized the partnership as a “blueprint” for the broader financial industry.

“This partnership proves that regulated, multi-asset tokenization at national scale on public blockchains is not just feasible, but live,” Van Niekerk said. He added that the infrastructure is intended to be a model that central securities depositories (CSDs), exchanges, and clearing houses can adopt to integrate digital assets into existing operations.

Crypto

BlackRock COO: Cryptocurrency Demand Surpasses Firm’s Expectations, Signaling a Shift in Value

Published

15 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Press Room

BlackRock COO: Cryptocurrency Demand Surpasses Firm’s Expectations, Signaling a Shift in Value

BlackRock Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein revealed that demand for cryptocurrency has significantly exceeded the firm’s initial projections, marking a notable shift in institutional sentiment toward digital assets. Speaking during a Binance online stream, Goldstein addressed the market’s reception of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), IBIT, and outlined the asset manager’s broader strategic outlook on blockchain-based finance.

Demand Driven by Value Proposition, Not Speculation

Goldstein emphasized that the global demand for IBIT was stronger than anticipated, describing the interest not as fleeting speculative enthusiasm but as a recognition of a new value proposition rooted in emerging technology. He noted that investors are increasingly viewing cryptocurrency as a distinct asset class with potential for long-term portfolio diversification, rather than a short-term trading vehicle. This perspective aligns with BlackRock’s broader push to integrate digital assets into traditional investment frameworks.

Tokenization and the Future of Capital Markets

Goldstein predicted that the tokenization of capital market instruments remains in its early stages, with future growth expected to be measured in multiples rather than incremental percentages. He argued that blockchain infrastructure could fundamentally reshape how assets are issued, traded, and settled, reducing friction and increasing transparency. This view is consistent with growing industry interest in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, a trend that major financial institutions are beginning to explore.

AI Agents and Digital Rail Transactions

In a forward-looking comment, Goldstein suggested that artificial intelligence agents will eventually conduct transactions directly via digital rails, or blockchain infrastructure, rather than logging into traditional bank accounts. This vision points to a future where automated systems interact with decentralized finance protocols, potentially streamlining operations across supply chains, payments, and asset management. While still conceptual, the statement underscores BlackRock’s attention to the convergence of AI and blockchain technologies.

The Education Gap Remains a Key Obstacle

Goldstein identified the primary barrier to broader adoption as a lack of investor education regarding the technical aspects of virtual assets and efficient portfolio allocation. Many institutional and retail investors remain uncertain about how to evaluate cryptocurrencies, assess risks, and integrate them into existing investment strategies. BlackRock’s emphasis on education suggests that the firm sees informed participation as critical to sustainable market growth.

Conclusion

BlackRock’s acknowledgment that cryptocurrency demand has exceeded expectations carries significant weight, given the firm’s status as the world’s largest asset manager with over $10 trillion in assets under management. Goldstein’s comments reflect a maturing institutional perspective that views digital assets not as a passing trend but as a structural evolution in finance. For investors, the key takeaway is that major financial players are moving beyond skepticism and actively building infrastructure for a tokenized future, even as educational gaps persist.

FAQs

Q1: What did BlackRock’s COO say about cryptocurrency demand?
Rob Goldstein stated that demand for cryptocurrency, particularly through BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF, has exceeded the firm’s expectations, driven by a recognition of its value as an emerging technology rather than mere speculation.

Q2: What is BlackRock’s view on tokenization?
Goldstein described tokenization of capital market tools as still in its infancy, with future growth expected to be exponential. He believes blockchain infrastructure will play a key role in transforming how assets are managed and traded.

Q3: What is the biggest obstacle to cryptocurrency adoption according to BlackRock?
The main challenge is a lack of investor education on the technical aspects of virtual assets and how to allocate them effectively within a portfolio, according to Goldstein.

Crypto

MEXC Commits to 1,000 BTC Purchase as Guardian Fund Targets $500M Expansion

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2026

Press Room

MEXC Commits to 1,000 BTC Purchase as Guardian Fund Targets 0M Expansion

Key Takeaways

BTC and USDT to Serve as Dual Reserve System for Market Stability

Crypto exchange MEXC is deepening its focus on reserve strength and user protection, announcing plans to expand its Guardian Fund fivefold to $500 million and acquire 1,000 bitcoin as part of a broader risk management strategy.

The exchange said the initiative will be rolled out over the next two years and is designed to create a dual-reserve structure combining liquid stablecoin holdings with long-term BTC reserves. The framework is intended to bolster platform stability and improve resilience during periods of market stress.

The announcement comes as MEXC continues to attract new capital and users. According to data from Defillama, the exchange recorded $271.6 million in net inflows over the past month through May 11, reflecting increased trading activity and participation across global markets.

Under the revised structure, the Guardian Fund will continue to hold significant USDT reserves to ensure immediate liquidity and operational flexibility. The addition of bitcoin is intended to provide a longer-term store of value capable of preserving purchasing power across market cycles.

Transparency Remains Key for MEXC

MEXC said the strategy is part of a disciplined reserve management approach rather than a reaction to short-term volatility. The company framed the expansion as an effort to build infrastructure comparable to institutional-grade financial safeguards increasingly expected in the digital asset industry.

“Trust has to be capitalized, not just claimed. The expansion of the Guardian Fund and the addition of bitcoin reserves reflect our commitment to building protection infrastructure that helps users access infinite opportunities with greater confidence,” CEO Vugar Usi said in a statement.

The exchange also emphasized transparency. Wallet addresses tied to the Guardian Fund’s USDT and bitcoin holdings have been disclosed publicly, allowing users to verify reserve balances on-chain in real time. The move highlights a broader trend among large trading platforms seeking to differentiate themselves through stronger balance sheets and more visible proof-of-reserves mechanisms.

For MEXC, the Guardian Fund expansion forms part of a wider push to position itself as a global platform capable of supporting long-term growth. The company said the initiative aligns with its broader strategy of improving transparency, strengthening risk management, and protecting users during periods of heightened market uncertainty.