The Economist Previously on Scam,
Inc. There was a representative from the Kansas Banking Commission that stood up and explained that the bank had become victim of a scam.
Scams have been the highest grossing crime that we follow for as long as I can remember.
How much do you estimate is being stolen each year in online fraud from these Chinese origin?
criminal groups.
If you were to make it a ballpark guess,
I would say more than 500 billion, less than a trillion.
I went to Kansas because I had a lot of questions.
I mean, of course I did.
A bank had collapsed there because its CEO sunk millions into a crypto scam.
But while I was in Elkhart, I just encountered more questions.
People were confused and upset.
That CEO, Shane Haynes, had quietly pleaded guilty to embezzling bank funds.
But shareholders were still out millions of dollars.
I mean, there would be something we could do about that.
Get that back somewhere.
Damn thieves, it's got that.
Bill Tucker, the elderly farmer who helped found the bank in the 1980s, wanted answers.
Where specifically did all that money go?
And was there any way to get it back?