Alan John Hanke

What the public record shows

Alan John Hanke, sole member of IOLO Capital, pleaded guilty in June 2024 to conspiracy to commit securities fraud for misappropriating more than $8 million in a Ponzi scheme, and began serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence. This is a criminal conviction — not an allegation.

The scheme — textbook “prime bank” fraud

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, between November 2018 and August 2021 Hanke persuaded investors — often in New York City meetings — to put money into IOLO and related companies, promising high returns in short periods by investing in:

• “Standby letters of credit,” “medium-term notes,” and “high-yield bonds” — the exact impressive-sounding jargon of the classic “prime bank” scheme.
• He also assured investors their money was insured against loss.

Almost none of the money was recovered. The bulk went to Hanke’s personal expenses — cruises, airfare, hotels, gambling, and a luxury car. He then filed a bankruptcy petition to conceal the conspiracy, hiding the millions he’d taken while disclosing only Social Security disability income.

What is a “prime bank” scheme?

A perennial fraud that invokes secret, high-return financial instruments supposedly traded between the world’s “prime banks” — standby letters of credit, medium-term notes, bank guarantees. These programs do not exist. Regulators (SEC, FINRA, the Federal Reserve) have warned about them for decades. The jargon exists to sound sophisticated and exclusive.

Why we rate this 1 / 10 — Avoid

A guilty plea and a 4.5-year sentence, plus concealment via bankruptcy fraud.

Bottom line

Convicted. “Insured high returns” from “standby letters of credit” or “medium-term notes” is prime-bank fraud — a category regulators say is fictional. Walk away.

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