Well as we celebrate the closing of yet another Hump Day, let’s NOT pour one out for Shan Hanes— aka Scumbag of the Day, because if anyone’s not feeling that midweek joy right now, it’s him. 

(Source: Hays Post) 

In fact, the former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank is probably wishing he’d told himself, “Maybe this isn’t worth the jail time.” before playing “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” with other people's money. Spoiler: He did it anyway. Spoiler #2: He played a stupid game and got one hell of a stupid prize as he’s just been sentenced to a jaw-dropping 24 years and five months behind bars for embezzling over $47 million. Oooof…

(Source: Nairametrics) 

In short, between May and July of 2023, Hanes got tangled up into a dumpster fire that’s known as a “Pig Butchering” scam (and no, it’s not some backwoods BBQ gone wrong). Simply put, this scam is exactly what it sounds like: fattening up your victims with a false sense of security before slaughtering their financial futures. Pretty self explanatory…

However, instead of doing what most scammers do and buy luxury materialistic crap to fill their balloon head egos, the dude allegedly wired the stolen cash to a cryptocurrency wallet. And guess what? The only thing that took off was his career—straight into the dumpster. See: Reason #5,493,872 I don't mess with Crypto. 

The aftermath, as you can imagine, was total carnage. Hanes’ reckless gamble didn’t just cost him his freedom; it took down Heartland Bank with him, leaving investors to lick their $9 million wounds. 

U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher summed it up perfectly: “Hanes’ greed knew no bounds.” No sh*t, Sherlock. The dude literally starred in his own version of Netflix’s “Kaleidoscope” where the only happy ending he got was a massive reality check and a pair of handcuffs.

(Source: Giphy) 

Sucks to Suck Hanes…

I mean imagine being the victims of this fiasco. Instead of safeguarding the bank's assets, and its customers, greed ultimately won the day as the public got shafted. My condolences go out to all those impacted, but thankfully, the justice system actually worked out in favor of the American people as Hanes got slapped with a sentence longer than most people’s student loan repayment plans. 

(Source: Giphy) 

However, just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for Hanes, it does. He’s still facing 28 criminal charges in state court, which could mean even more time in the slammer. But what’s really interesting here though, is that this sentencing comes out right after Carl Icahn’s $5 billion hide ‘n seek with the SEC. Of course, we already discussed this topic in depth yesterday…

(Source: The Guardian) 

But even though Carl Icahn didn’t pocket $47 million of his customers' money without them having any knowledge, he still took advantage of the market and failed to disclose $5 billion in personal secured margin loans. The result? Just a small slap on the wrist fine for only $2 million dollars.

(Source: New York Times) 

Now obviously this situation with Hanes has nothing to do with Icahn, but the differences in the punishment is definitely eye catching. Meaning, when it comes to legends on Wall Street, they can still do shady a$$ things and walk away pretty much unscathed… like Icahn for example.

However, when you’re a regional bank CEO, and you screw people… well, then you’re basically F’d out of everything you ever held dear to your heart. So with that said, while we can all sleep at night knowing justice was served, it’s still a stark reminder that when it comes to money and greed… nothing ever comes good from it. But if that money and greed happens to fall on a Wall Street legend, you might as well fuhgeddaboudit bucko. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Stocks.News holds positions in Netflix and Icahn Enterprises as mentioned in the article.