The Federal Reserve banned two former bankers from future work in the industry this past week, saying the ex-employees misappropriated customer funds and, in one case, embezzled, according to prohibition orders disclosed Thursday.
Simon Alberto Gonzalez, an Orlando, Florida-based relationship banker who worked at Regions through November 2024, withdrew roughly $203,000 from an elderly customer’s accounts for his personal benefit starting in August 2023, the Fed said in an order signed July 24. The central bank labeled Gonzalez’s actions a “willful disregard” for Regions’ safety and soundness.
Ralph Mojica, a Nampa, Idaho-based teller at First Interstate Bank from May to September 2025, misappropriated $33,300 from two elderly customers’ accounts in a series of transactions between July and September of that year, the Fed said, in an order signed Monday. Mojica also embezzled $8,000 from First Interstate’s teller cash recycler during that time, the central bank found.
“Mojica’s conduct constituted violations of law or regulation, unsafe or unsound banking practices, or breaches of fiduciary duty, and involved his personal dishonesty or his willful or continuing disregard for the Bank’s safety and soundness,” the Fed said in the order.
The ex-bankers’ prohibition will remain in effect unless “expressly stayed, modified, terminated, or suspended in writing” by the Fed’s board of governors, according to the orders.
