Two Indiana bankers – who both worked for the same bank in Covington, Ind. – were prohibited from further work in a financial institution after pleading guilty to laundering more than $1.6 million of illicit drug sales proceeds, the federal bank deposit insurance agency said Friday.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), Georgina Banuelos and Ilenis Zapata both pleaded guilty in September to charges of money laundering conspiracy. According to the agency, Banuelos and Zapata were tellers at The Fountain Trust Co. of Covington. The agency said they allegedly laundered drug proceeds through the bank’s vault by exchanging low denomination drug proceeds for larger denomination bills totaling $1,612,000.
Banuelos was employed by the bank from 2008 to 2024, when she was terminated; Zapata worked at the bank from 2012 to 2024, when she was fired.
In other actions, the FDIC reported:
- Steven W. Cook, former president of SouthernTrust Bank in Marion, Ill., was assessed a $15,000 civil money penalty (CMP) after being found guilty in 2024 for causing the bank “to fund three loans supported by documents containing false information and material misrepresentations.”
- Brandon J. Zanotti, a former director of Farmers State Bank of Alto Pass in Alto Pass, Ill., was assessed a $7,000 CMP after being found guilty in 2024 of executing documents “containing false information and material misrepresentations intended to induce SouthernTrust Bank” to approve a loan for the purchase of real estate owned by Zanotti’s LLC.
FDIC Enforcement Decisions and Orders
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