In the Wichita courtroom, Hanes offered his unique public reflection on the bank’s collapse. Wearing a gray suit, he turned to Lectern, nervously looking at his ex -friends in the gallery. “I’m sorry,” he told the judge. By the end, he explained, he thought he was involved in a legal business agreement. In January 2024, he told court, made a vain attempt to recover the lost money, flying to Perth, Australia, where he was supposed to have some of his non -existent business partners established. He was in touch with them until he landed at the airport. But the rescue was not implemented. Only then, months after the Bank’s explosion, which accepted that it had been deceived. “I will fight forever by understanding how cheated,” Hani said. “I should have caught it. But I didn’t.”
After Hanes is over, Judge Broomes shook back on his chair and returned to confront the shareholders. “The best thing for you is to forgive this man,” he said. “Leave the issues of punishment to me. This is my job and I will see that it is over. “He condemned Hani for 24 years and 5 months in prison, a punishment even greater than the federal prosecutors requested. A chorus yess reacted by the shareholders.
Hanes’ shoulders collapsed. As the two US soldiers approached him, he removed his tie, fell from his jacket and was emptied of his pockets. Behind him, the shareholders became quiet. Hani’s sister and one of his daughters cling to each other, their bending, breaking the silence. Hanis looked at them once, quickly, before the soldiers kicked him out and drove him out of the room.
One day last October, Tucker received a call from a FBI researcher was good news: Federal officials had recovered $ 8 million from stolen funds, which had been hidden in an account full of Tether, a popular encryption. Stash was a small fraction of what Hanes stole, but it would be enough to compensate the shareholders for almost all the money they had invested in the bank.
Tucker’s joy would expect to feel that he was mitigated by sadness. His father was in and out of the hospital and a doctor warned that he had only days to live. That night, Tucker went to his father’s hospital room and shared what he had heard. Bill Tucker flashes sometimes and then said, “Oh, me.” He died a week later.
