He gained the world. He then lost the world and those who were the closest to him. But he never lost his soul while hitting the lowest of lows in a federal penitentiary that once housed John Gotti.
Shaun Hayes was once at the top of the banking world in St. Louis until he was in the wrong place at the wrong time during one of the worst recessions ever, which led to approving bank loans that violated state and federal laws.
Shaun tells his story in his book, The Gray Choice, where we learn about a young man with entrepreneurial instincts as a teenager. After college, he worked for a larger-than-life legendary banker in Kansas City. That work took him to St. Louis to grow that bank's presence in that region.
A few years later, Shaun bought into his first bank, which would become a small $1 billion empire that went public. Shaun points out that his gray choices started well before he was arrested, which is the topic of this conversation.