Is pig butchering real?
The Pig Butchering Scam That Killed a Bank
A Kansas bank CEO wired $47.1 million to scammers in under six weeks. The bank collapsed. He is serving 24 years.
21 min 12 secPublished 29 July 2026U.S. v. Shan Hanes · Heartland Tri-State Bank, Elkhart, Kansas
21 min 12 sec · Full episode
Is pig butchering real?
Yes. In 2023 the chief executive of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kansas sent ten wire transfers totalling $47.1 million of his bank's money to a fake cryptocurrency platform. The bank failed. He is serving 24 years and 5 months in federal prison.
The method is always the same shape: a text that arrives at the wrong number, weeks of friendly conversation, then a trading app that does not exist and whose balance only ever climbs. A small withdrawal is allowed to work before the large deposit is asked for. That withdrawal is not proof the platform is real. It is the bait.
By the numbers
$47.1M
wired in ten transfers
6 weeks
from first wire to collapse
24 yrs
federal sentence imposed
What happens in this episode
In 2023 the chief executive of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kansas sent ten wire transfers totalling $47.1 million of his bank's money to a fake cryptocurrency platform. The bank failed. He is serving 24 years and 5 months in federal prison. This episode takes the machine apart: the wrong-number text, the weeks of grooming, the trading app that does not exist, and the small withdrawal that works — because it is the bait.
Running order
Each chapter opens the episode on YouTube at that point.
Three tells that would have stopped it
Screenshot this. Put it on the fridge. It is the whole episode in three lines.
Tell I — The wrong number
No stranger who texts you “by accident” stays to chat.
The opening move is a text to the wrong person — a hairdresser confirming an appointment, an old friend reconnecting. A real wrong number apologises and leaves. This one asks how your day is going. Ever.
Tell II — The platform nobody has heard of
Real investments do not live in apps that are not in the app store.
The link arrives by message, not from Apple or Google. The charts are real-looking, the balance only ever climbs, and the support chat answers in seconds. The whole platform is a display, and the numbers on it are typed by the person grooming you.
Tell III — The withdrawal that works
If they let you take out $500 easily, that is not proof. That is the bait.
Federal guidance documents it plainly: the operation may allow a small withdrawal specifically to build confidence before the large deposit. The withdrawal that works is not a flaw in the scam. It is the scam.
The documents behind this episode
Every on-screen claim in this episode maps to one of the documents below. They are court records, sentencing releases, regulator filings and official reports, published by the bodies that issued them. Where a case is named, it has been adjudicated.
U.S. Department of Justice
Former executive pleads guilty after losing bank's $47.1 million in crypto scheme
Federal Reserve OIG
Material Loss Review of Heartland Tri-State Bank (2024-SR-B-004)
FBI IC3
11 sources · Case: U.S. v. Shan Hanes · Heartland Tri-State Bank, Elkhart, Kansas
Disclosure
Narration uses a synthetic AI voice; some illustrations on the evidence board are AI-generated and are visibly illustrations. Disclosed per EU AI Act Article 50. Every factual claim is sourced from public court records and official releases.