For your CEO to be arrested on charges of child sexual exploitation is quite a crisis. It doesn’t help to be already at the center of a financial scandal. This is the new reality faced by Evolve Bank and Trust. So far, the company seems to be handling the disturbing situation as well as can be expected — with one small qualm.

Bob Hartheimer, whom Evolve hired as CEO only in August, was arrested Oct. 23 at the bank’s headquarters in Memphis, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 31, the day court documents became public. Hartheimer was arrested for allegedly attempting to produce child pornography and send a sexually explicit photo to a minor. He was, according to the WSJ, “targeted by an undercover FBI agent, who told him that he was a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr.”

Hartheimer formerly worked at regulator Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and has often been tapped to turn around troubled banks. Privately held Evolve hired him to clean up a mess arising from the 2024 fintech scandal; Synapse, which stored tens of thousands of customers’ funds with Evolve, went bankrupt and $100 million went missing. Evolve and Synapse are pointing fingers at each other over the missing moolah.

Personal Matter

In its Oct. 31 story, the WSJ, citing Evolve spokesman Eric Helvie, said Hartheimer had been fired. “We are in close contact with the U.S. attorney’s office and have been assured that this is a personal matter and does not relate to the bank or its operations in any way,” Helvie was quoted. “That said, we have offered our full cooperation as they investigate.”

While many companies might play ostrich in response to such a lurid crisis not of its own making, Evolve has been up-front at least with one tactic. On Monday, we visited its website and were immediately greeted by a statement in a pop-up window. And it was a pretty good statement.

The company started out by saying it was “deeply disturbed and heartbroken” to learn of the arrest. Where many companies might forgo the details, Evolve spelled out that Hartheimer’s arrest was “on charges related to child sexual exploitation.” It noted that the company took action: It fired Hartheimer and cooperated with law enforcement. “All of the Evolve stakeholders unequivocally condemn any form of exploitation or abuse, particularly against the most vulnerable in our society,” it wrote. That’s a good sentence.

‘Harmful Impact’

Another sentence personalized the message, which is something we’ve encouraged for a long time. “As parents, grandparents and members of this community, we recognize the harmful impact this type of conduct has and our thoughts are with all affected,” Evolve wrote.

Finally, in a smart move — again, especially with a crisis not of its own making — the company said it was donating to the Memphis Child Advocacy Center, which helps victims of child sexual abuse. It also provided links to that group and a national organization for anyone who “has been affected or is a victim of child sexual or physical abuse.”

The one qualm we had was that Evolve didn’t make the statement available on its website’s news section. That disappointment was heightened when we realized on Tuesday that the statement no longer popped up on its website.

Image Credit: Evolve

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