The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has banned four former bankers from future work in the industry, the agency disclosed Thursday.
James Blose, once general counsel at Stamford, Connecticut-based Webster Bank, was barred from the industry after pleading guilty to bank fraud and engaging in illegal monetary transactions and being sentenced in April to four years in prison.
Blose was involved in a decade-long embezzlement scheme that used his attorney trust accounts to cover personal expenses and transfer funds to accounts in the names of businesses he had created and controlled. Through this scheme, Blose was found to have stole roughly $7.4 million from his employers and used the money for his personal benefit, including buying a vacation property, luxury vehicles, and private jet charters.
If the prohibition order is violated, Blose could face fines of up to $1 million or imprisonment for up to five years, or both. It could also lead to additional civil money penalties, the OCC noted.
However, Blose has the right to request an informal hearing, which must be submitted in writing and received within 30 days of order service, according to the OCC.
Lacey Ann Henry, a former teller manager at the Trooper, Pennsylvania, branch of TD from June 2020 to February 2022, accessed confidential customer information and withdrew at least $41,500 from customer checking accounts in November and December 2021, for her personal benefit, the OCC found.
Henry “engaged in violations of law and unsafe and unsound practices, which resulted in financial loss to the Bank and financial gain to Respondent, and demonstrated personal dishonesty,” the agency said in the prohibition order.
Alonso Missael Gonzalez Ibarra, a former teller and associate operations lead at a Portland, Oregon, branch of JPMorgan Chase, stole $36,768 between June and October 2022 from two ATMs. In an attempt to cover up his theft, Ibarra, who worked at JPMorgan for roughly seven years, altered the totals in the ATM records to make the ATMs appear to be in balance, the OCC found.
Cricel Santamaria, a former client service representative at a Stamford location of Webster Bank, obtained 62 images of checks from the lender’s internal systems and sold them online between October 2021 and April 2022, the OCC found. The total reported check sale fraud was $237,374, while the bank lost about $108,000, the agency said.
Following the check sale, 13 Webster customers reported fraud on their accounts.
Santamaria violated laws and “engaged in unsafe or unsound practices, caused more than a minimal loss to the Bank, demonstrated personal dishonesty and willful or continuing disregard for the safety and soundness of the Bank,” the OCC said.
The OCC order prohibited the ex-bankers from working in the banking and financial services industry. The order also includes a provision that will allow the prohibition to be lifted for a specific institution if the person obtains written consent from both the OCC and the appropriate federal regulatory agency.
The former bankers neither admitted nor denied the allegations but consented to the prohibition orders.
