ChainCatcher news, former Heartland Tri-State Bank CEO Shan Hanes was sentenced to 293 months in prison for embezzling $47 million in a "pig butchering" scheme.The ruling stated that Hanes relinquished ownership of the funds in the Ethereum address managed by Tether Limited. Tether blacklisted the address and froze its transaction permissions to protect investors' rights.Judge John W. Broomes confirmed that all shareholders will receive full compensation. Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) also provided full protection for the bank's depositors.

ChainCatcher News: The U.S. Secret Service has seized a network domain used for a "pig butchering" scam involving cryptocurrency trust fraud. In a "pig butchering" scam, fraudsters contact victims through various means, including dating apps, social media websites, and even random text messages disguised as wrong numbers.It is reported that the fraudsters establish a relationship with the victims and gradually gain their trust, ultimately introducing the idea of using cryptocurrency for business investments. Victims are directed to other members involved in the scheme, who operate fake cryptocurrency investment platforms where victims are persuaded to invest funds. Once the funds are transferred to the fraudulent investment application, victims suffer significant losses.According to court records, between approximately August 2022 and July 2023, the fraudsters lured a victim from Warren County to wire funds to the now-seized domain OKEX-NFT.net. The fraudsters employed the aforementioned trust-building techniques to convince the victim that he/she was making a legitimate cryptocurrency investment.Furthermore, after the victim transferred investment funds to a deposit address associated with the seized domain provided by the fraudsters, the victim's funds were immediately transferred through multiple bank accounts to conceal the source of the funds. In total, the victim lost over $341,000.