Prohibition of former bank teller alleged to have taken $10,000 among OCC’s latest enforcement actions

A former teller of Santander Bank, N.A. (Wilmington, Del.) has been prohibited from future service in any federally insured financial institution under a consent order released Thursday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

The OCC has barred Caroline J. Hughes, former teller of Santander Bank. The order states that Hughes, during the period Jan. 22 to Feb. 5 of 2019, repeatedly misappropriated cash from her teller drawer, for a grand total of $10,000, and force balanced her drawer to conceal the theft. “By reason of the foregoing conduct, Respondent engaged in violations of law, and engaged in unsafe or unsound practices,” it states.

That was one of seven orders included in the OCC’s Thursday release, which also listed the orders announced earlier this month addressing Capital One’s 2019 data breach. That breach affected more than 100 million credit card customers and card applicants and earned the bank an $80 million civil money penalty.

The other two orders in Thursday’s release included a cease-and-desist order against The First National Bank and Trust Company of Vinita (Vinita, Okla.) over unsafe or unsound practices (for example, related to strategic and capital planning, liquidity risk management, problem loans, etc.); and a formal agreement with CommunityBank of Texas, N.A. (Beaumont, Texas) regarding Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) deficiencies, including one violation related to internal controls.

OCC release

RR: Capital One hit with $80 million civil money penalty over 2019 data breach (Aug. 6, 2020)