The cryptocurrency fraud that converted a small town against itself

In the Wichita Court Chamber, Hanes offered his only public reflection on the bank's collapse. With a gray suit, he walked to the lectern, nervously looking at his former friends in the gallery. “Sorry,” he told the judge. Until the end, he explained, he thought he was involved in a legitimate business. In January 2024, he told the court that he made a useless attempt to recover the lost money, flying to Perth, Australia, where some of his non -existent commercial partners had been based. I was in contact with them until the moment he landed at the airport. But no rescue materialized. It was only then, months after the bank closed, that he accepted that he had been deceived. “I will always fight how they cheated me,” said Hanes. “I should have caught it, but I didn't.”

After Hanes finished speaking, Judge Broomes swing back in his chair and turned to face the shareholders. “The best thing for you is to forgive this man,” he said. “Leave issues for remuneration to me. That is my job, and I will see what is done. “

Hanes's shoulders collapsed. When two US sheriffs. Uu. They approached him, slowed down, took off his suit of his suit and emptied his pockets. Behind him, the shareholders shut up. Hanes' sister and one of her daughters clung to each other, her sobs broke the silence. Hanes looked at them once, quickly, before the marshare handled him and took him out of the room.

A day last October, Tucker received a call from a researcher at the FBI, it was good news: federal officials had recovered $ 8 million of the stolen funds, which had been hidden in an account full of tied, a popular cryptocurrency. The stash was a small fraction of what Hanes stole, but it would be enough to reimburse the shareholders almost all the money they had invested in the bank.

The joy that Tucker could have hoped to feel was tempered by sadness. His father had been entering and leaving the hospital, and a doctor warned that he was only left for days to live. That night, Tucker went to his father's hospital room and shared what he had heard. Bill Tucker blinked several times and then said: “Oh, my.” He died a week later.