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Greed-to-Grief, No. 18

Greed-to-Grief, No. 18

The cost of being a Crypto-Bro

George Pillari
August 28, 2025

Shan Hayes told his friend Brian Mitchell he needed to meet with him right away. Mitchell was a prosperous long-time resident of Elkhart, KS, population of 2,000, and Hayes was the president of Elkhart-based Heartland Tri-State Bank.

Former bank president and failed crypto bro Shan Hayes

Heartland was the pride and joy of the small farming town that was hours away from the nearest city. After wresting back ownership from a large banking group, the three-dozen local shareholders of the bank relied on Hayes to blend his financial skills and understanding of agriculture to run a smooth, unexciting bank that made loans locally and paid out its earnings each year to the shareholders.

Mitchell wondered what bank president Hayes wanted, since not much in Elkhart was urgent. Hayes made it quick. “I need $12 million, and I will pay you back $13 million next week.”

Hayes pulled out his phone and showed Mitchell the $40 million that was in his crypto account and explained how he needed to send $12 million more to the account to recover all the funds. Mitchell told Hayes that it was a scam, and Mitchell wanted no part of it.

It turns out that Hayes was being scammed and the total losses from funds Hayes sent to the scammers was more than $50 million.

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In the world of crypto, Hayes was the victim of what is known as a pig-butchering scheme.

In such a scheme, the target, like Hayes, is offered larger and larger opportunities to send more money to be converted into fake crypto assets.

The schemes usually start small, and each escalation fattens the pig before slaughter. Hayes started by cleaning out his daughter’s $60,000 college-savings fund, then diverted funds from his local church where he preached, as well as the investment club he ran. As the money man and most-trustworthy guy in town, this was easy for Hayes.

The initial entry into a pig-butchering scam is usually through an unsolicited online relationship. The scammers have the data and know if they send a million emails or LinkedIn requests with an attractive picture of a male or female financial advisor in it and offer to open up the riches of the crypto world, that a few dozen people will click and some of them will be sucked into the scam.

The scammers kept up the escalations, and before long, Hayes was wiring millions of other people’s money from Heartland’s accounts to the scammers, who promised that each additional amount would buy more of the (fake) crypto. The account statements that Hayes could pull up on his phone had to be accurate, right?

Hayes circumvented his own bank’s wiring policies and kept sending money until his board fired him and put an end to it all. Even in his last board meeting, Hayes appeared confident that if the bank just released several more millions to the scammers, all would be well.

In a courtroom full of angry bank shareholders and community members, many of which lost all of their retirement savings, the judge threw the book at Hayes and sentenced him to more than 24 years in prison, the maximum allowable sentence.

In his statement to Hayes, the judge summed it up:

“You knew better. You were not a fool.”

Key Takeaways

At what point does a person stop and realize he made a mistake? Is it after the kid’s college fund or after tens of millions embezzled from his employer?
Watch out. The online scammers are really good. I personally know two different people who were taken for more than $10,000 each. Believe nothing.
Even living and in a remote corner of Kansas, Hayes could not escape FOMO. And worse, he believed in what he was doing right until the bitter end.

Things I think about

Turnover for federal government employees is about 6.0%. Private-sector turnover is three times higher at an average of 18.0%.

Greed-to-Grief, No. 18

The cost of being a Crypto-Bro

Key Takeaways

Things I think about

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