Bob Hartheimer Arrested as CEO of Evolve Bank & Trust

Bob Hartheimer, who recently became the CEO of Evolve Bank & Trust in West Memphis, was arrested on Monday by federal authorities at the bank’s headquarters in Memphis, as confirmed by a bank spokeswoman.

Hartheimer took over as CEO in August, following a challenging year for the bank that included data breaches and issues with federal regulations tied to its partnership with a fintech company.

On Thursday, Hartheimer described his arrest as “personal” and not related to his role at Evolve. Following the incident, he has been placed on administrative leave, according to the bank.

The FBI’s Nashville field office announced that they executed an arrest and search warrant at Evolve’s Memphis address, which is located at 6000 Poplar Street.

Founded in West Memphis, Evolve Bank & Trust operates five branches across Arkansas.

The FBI directed additional inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee in Memphis, which has not yet responded to further requests for details.

Hartheimer was initially set to appear in court today, but sources and reports suggest that this hearing has now been postponed to Tuesday.

Federal court records did not provide more information regarding the circumstances of Hartheimer’s arrest.

Jason Mikula, who runs Fintech Business Weekly, was among the first to report on Hartheimer’s arrest on Thursday.

Hartheimer has previously worked as a regulator for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, where he was involved in the establishment of the agency’s resolution division that handles the closure and sale of failing banks. He also co-founded Jasper, a credit card company for customers with minimal credit histories, which ceased operations in 2022.

Prior to becoming CEO, Hartheimer served as a banking and fintech regulatory consultant and had worked with Evolve.

His arrest comes amid a turbulent period for Evolve, a bank that primarily focuses on providing banking services to fintech companies and mobile applications. In April, a fintech client of Evolve, Synapse Financial Technologies, filed for bankruptcy, and the bank is currently facing a lawsuit over consumer account liabilities.

Following Synapse’s bankruptcy filing last year, the Federal Reserve imposed sanctions on Evolve due to deficiencies in its anti-money laundering practices and consumer compliance. Additionally, the bank suffered a data breach where a known cybercriminal group stole and published customer data on the dark web.

Despite an increase in assets and net income largely driven by its Banking as a Service operations, Evolve reported a net loss of $8.6 million in the first half of this year, even with total assets reaching $1.46 billion.