A Kansas banker robbing millions from his small town bank in 2023.
Prosecutors have filed a civilian action targeting more than $ 225 million in the laundered USDT, which is part of a butchering scam that linked to a call center of the Philippines that submitted Shan Hanes, the shame of former CEO released $ 47 million from Heartland’s Tri-State Banka robbery directly Related to the death of the agricultural lender in 2023.
According to Complaint by the Department of JusticeOKX, a crypto exchange, provided basic information that helped to identify an elaborate network of exchange accounts used to launder the proceeds of crypto.
Scammers are drawing funds by first directing victims to send USDT to 93 scam -controlled deposit addresses. From there, the funds have been raised through many 100 intermediary wallets in a process designed to hide the source of funds and mix deposits from many victims, according to the complaint.
These funds were then made up of 22 main OKX accounts and further shuffled across 122 additional OKX accounts, all linked by shared IP addresses, re-used KYC documents, and coordinated behavior allegedly monitored in a Manila compound, whose complaint names as itechno Specialist Inc.
In total, the DOJ said approximately $ 3 billion in the volume of transactions was generated by this laundering network.
Largest victims
In total, the DOJ said there were 434 victims and identified 60 of them who lost a joint $ 19.4 million.
The largest of these victims was Hanes, with the DOJ introducing $ 3.3 million of the $ 47 million he had released this seizure.
Hanes released the money between May 30, 2023, and July 7, 2023, according to the DOJ complaint and the Report by Federal Reserve With the downfall of Heartland’s tri-state bank, one of the banks that fell after 2023 US banking crisis.
During this six-week period, Hanes began 10 wire shifts worth about $ 47.1 million from the Heartland Tri-State bank, a small community lender dedicated to agricultural loans, in a crypto purse he controls.
This wire transfers occurred between the period of the bank’s quarterly regulation reporting, allowing the activity to be unspecified.
At this time, Heartland was well-capitalized with $ 13.7 million in capital and $ 139 million in property, but Hanes’s actions reduced its liquidity, triggered $ 21 million in emergency borrowing, and left the bank with $ 35 million holes of capital, forcing regulators to close it on July 2023.
According to previous reporting from CNBCHanes 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 liquid was about $ 1 million in stock from a firm called ELKHART FINANCIAL to send to pig butchering scammers.
He was punished 24 years in prison In August 2024.
The DOJ’s complaint was defined to him as both a accomplishment and a victim.
The seized crypto is likely to go to Fed Stockpile
The Crypto seized by the US government, as in this case, is likely to be marked for an unstable stockpile President Donald Trump ordered.
The bitcoin
The reserve and the stockpile of other cryptocurrencies have not yet been formally established, but the Treasury department is leading the audience of digital government ownership to determine what needs to be gathered.
Once established, long -term crypto handling is likely to place a seized bitcoin in one fund and other types of tokens in another.
The holders in this case appear to be in the significant USDT value, according to the filing. It is unclear what funds can be returned to the victims, as relatively small percentages of those directly injured are identified.
