Personal cease-and-desist orders against three persons at two banks, one in Nebraska the other in Oklahoma, were levied by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in January, the regulator announced; three civil money penalties (CMPs) were also ordered, and seven terminations of orders were announced.
The OCC issued a cease and desist (C&D) order against Arin M. Doss, First National Bank of Omaha, Neb. The agency said that Doss, while an employee of the bank between January to July 2014, “on multiple occasions misappropriated bank funds from her teller cash drawer for personal use.” Doss has been prohibited from any future involvement with a federally insured financial institution (including a bank or credit union).
In Oklahoma, the OCC took actions against Jeffrey Scott Ferguson, Firstar Bank, National Association, Sallisaw, and Joshua Means, Central National Bank & Trust Company of Enid.
Ferguson is accused of embezzling approximately $620,000 from customer accounts without the customers’ knowledge or approval, the agency said. “During the period from March 2011 to May 2014, Respondent made unauthorized cash withdrawals from three of the customer’s accounts by misinforming tellers that the customer had authorized the withdrawals to pay vendors. In approximately May 2014, the customer confronted Respondent about the missing funds, and Respondent admitted to misapplying the funds,” the OCC said. Like Doss, Ferguson has been prohibited from any future involvement with a federally insured financial institution.
Means is accused of removing information from the bank related to at least three customers with the intent to use the information at a financial institution with whom he was engaged in negotiations regarding future employment. “This customer information included nonpublic personal information such as tax returns, financial statements, and other documents,” the OCC said. “Respondent was aware that the Bank’s Standards of Conduct policy required him to maintain the confidentiality of nonpublic Bank information and prohibited him from using it for the advancement of his personal interests.”
The agency said Means, during the period from April to June 16, 2014, solicited the loan business of at least six bank customers at the financial institution with whom he sought future employment. In February of last year, the OCC said, Means “made materially false statements to the OCC regarding his solicitation of Bank customers’ loan business to another financial institution and his removal of confidential customer information from the Bank.”
The agency levied a cease-and-desist (C&D) order against Means requiring him to inform future prospective employers about his past actions. He was also fined $5,000, one of the three CMPs issued in January, the comptroller’s office said.
The two other CMPs in January were fines against Rabobank N.A. of Roseville, Calif., and U.S. Bank N.A. of Cincinnati, Ohio – both previously reported by the OCC.
In addition, the national bank regulator terminated seven existing enforcement actions during January. Those included C&Ds against Rabobank N.A., Roseville, Calif.; ServiceLink Holdings, LLC, Successor to Lender Processing Services, Inc., Jacksonville, Fla.; Bank of America, N.A., Charlotte, N.C.; MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., formerly known as (f/k/a) MERSCORP, Inc., Reston, Va.; MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., f/k/a Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., Reston, Va.