• PeachMan@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Kinda misleading or poorly written title. He was not convicted of falling for a crypto scam. He was convicted of embezzling funds from the bank, which he did while pumping them into a dumb crypto scam. It would have been illegal even if the crypto thing was NOT a scam (which is rare, I know).

    • xavier666@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      even if the crypto thing was NOT a scam (which is rare, I know).

      that comment had to hurt the crypto community hard

      • qaz@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The people who still don’t know have built up a level of ignorance to miss any kind of message like that.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        TBH I feel like it’s much harder for anti-crypto ideologues to admit that crypto has non-scam usages. Or to admit that fiat currency is a scam so huge that it’s literally destroying the planet.

        • orrk@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          to be fair, buying drugs or untraceable money transfers are totally a use case of crypto (basically everything that is illegal)

          • dan@upvote.au
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            2 months ago

            untraceable money transfers

            Crypto is very traceable though - every transaction that has ever happened is in a public ledger!

            There’s usually a transfer to or from fiat currency at some point, and there’s been several cases where Bitcoin transfers have been traced to a real person using that.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Hanes stole tens of thousands from a local church, then a local investor club, and finally his daughter’s college fund, NBC News reported. Then when all those wells dried up, he started stealing bank funds

    Wow, what a PoS

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      It states that he never once received anything back yet was convinced even after being arrested and sending 10s of millions of dollars into a black hole, that he only needed another month or two to earn everything back. How the fuck can someone be duped so hard?

    • Shawdow194@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      “Many victims will never fully recoup losses to their life savings and retirement funds, but at least we at the Department of Justice can see that Hanes is held criminally responsible for his actions.”

      • teft@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I would hope most people would be made whole through FDIC insurance. That’s 250k per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category.

  • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Wild story, but many things I don’t get:

    • How could a bank CEO be so stupid to fall for a financial scam like this? He must know how these work, banks are constantly fighting against scams and warning customers
    • How the fuck the bank would allow the CEO to go rogue and request/make these transactions? They have board, supervisory board, risk mgmt, yet nobody stopped or noticed the fraud until his neighbor(!) told them. This institution shouldn’t be allowed to handle people’s money
    • Wtf is the attorney’s sad speech about being unsure ppl getting back their savings? They were insured, they get the money back. Pay the fuck up and reimburse your clients for the bank’s mistake
    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      This one blew me away.

      According to NBC News, Hanes missed at least one opportunity to realize that he was being scammed. After he asked for a $12 million loan from a neighbor, Brian Mitchell, his neighbor detected the scam and refused to lend the money.

      My limit is like $40.

      • Plopp@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Cheap bastard! Who would deny their neighbor coming over to borrow some sugar and a couple mills?

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          2 months ago

          Well the house is presumably up for purchase now. I feel like I want to be this guy’s neighbor.

          Hey Bob, I want to buy a luxury yacht but I only have $12.50 in the bank, can I borrow $2 million please I’ll have it back to you by Friday.

            • orrk@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              I know, these poors don’t know anything about the struggles we face. (did you know mike just got himself a Benetti that’s 2 meters longer than mine? honestly, who does he think he is)

      • nandeEbisu@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Damn, even with inflation? You must be super on guard. That being said. I will turn on my A game to shave $0.50 off of a set of coasters from a tourist shop while on vacation.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Because the bank was insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the FDIC “absorbed the $47.1 million loss” after "Hanes’ fraudulent actions caused HTSB to fail and the bank investors to lose $9 million.

    his sentence of more than 24 years is 29 months longer than prosecutors had requested, NBC News reported.

    Here, the only reason he’s seeing jail time. Not because he stole, but he stole from the rich. Tanking a bank and losing poor peoples money won’t get you anything. But lose rich peoples money, and you’re going down. There are two justice systems in america, and you don’t have access to the one that works.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Here, the only reason he’s seeing jail time. Not because he stole, but he stole from the rich.

      Regardless, maybe the reality that a C-suite executive is spending a quarter century in jail might mean there’s a chance it’ll prevent others from trying something similarly corrupt?

      Maybe?

      Please??

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    After endless scams, have people figured out yet that Crypto is a scam?

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Given that he was embezzling bank funds to funnel into a fake crypto scam, and the people who those funds belonged to were not in fact the bank, and the article suggests those people were not made whole, I’m just gonna say that it’s not about the bank, it’s about the people who lost shit like their life savings to this a-hole.

      • idunnololz@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Because the bank was insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the FDIC “absorbed the $47.1 million loss” after “Hanes’ fraudulent actions caused HTSB to fail and the bank investors to lose $9 million,” the US Attorney’s Office said.

        It sounds like no customer with the bank lost anything. Only investors who I assume are well off anyways.

        • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The banks customers were not the only people who he stole from. However, I concede the point.

          • idunnololz@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Oh yeah. That’s fair.

            I guess the silver lining here was that it could have been so much worse but thank goodness for FDIC.

          • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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            2 months ago

            Yeah, that’s 47 million in tax payer dollars. So instead of stealing millions from a few people, it’s pennies from millions of people. Definitely a lot of better things that money could have gone to.

        • Blaat1234@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Plenty of people lost most of their retirement savings - FDIC only goes up to 250k which isn’t enough for super frugal FIRE. And definitely not enough when you get old and medical bills are crazy high in Murica.

            • Blaat1234@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              That contradicts statements on https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/ex-bank-ceo-gets-24-years-after-falling-for-crypto-scam-causing-bank-collapse/

              Victims may never fully recover losses, DOJ says

              In the community, people are still struggling to recover, Mitchell told NBC News, noting that some people lost up to 80 percent of their retirement savings. For at least one woman, retirement is impossible now, Mitchell said, and for another local woman, it has become difficult to pay for her 93-year-old mother’s nursing home.

              US Attorney Kate E. Brubacher said that it’s hard to say when or if victims will be made whole again.

              But it seems like they didn’t let it fail completely and transferred all assets and most liabilities to Dream First Bank? That would be nice for the granny with more than 250K in the account.

          • idunnololz@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Actually 250k is the minimum for FDIC. Also I’m only basing my information on this single article but it says he stole 47 million and then the article goes on to say that FDIC absorbed the 47 million loss. Given this wording it sounds like every single dollar was covered.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Even criminals deserve good outro themes. Its just the right thing to do.

        Edit: I’ve said previously that for the hilariously guilty, the cue after they make in the interview room should be the intro to Angel by Sarah Maclachlan looped for until they are out of transit