Billion-Dollar Bank’s Employee Secretly Transfers $123,000 From Customer Accounts to His Associates: FDIC

An employee at a billion-dollar bank transferred a massive pile of cash from customer accounts without permission for his own purposes, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

In a new filing, the FDIC alleges  that while working as an international sales representative at the International Bank of Commerce in Laredo, Texas, Martin Fernandez, Jr. “made unauthorized transfers of approximately $123,563” from the accounts of two customers between July of 2018 and August of 2021.

According to the FDIC, Fernandez moved the money to three of his known associates.

The US banking regulator says that one of Fernandez’s victims was an International Bank of Commerce customer who wanted to open a new account. After the account was opened, Fernandez then helped the customer transfer funds to the newly created account on or about July 18th of 2019. The following day, Fernandez made multiple transfers from the customer’s newly created account to an associate without authorization.

Between five and seven months later, Fernandez made multiple unauthorized transfers from the same account to another associate without the customer’s permission.

Fast forward to between July 20th of 2020 and August 12th of 2021, Fernandez also initiated multiple unauthorized transfers from the account of another customer to yet another associate.

The banking regulator says that the former International Bank of Commerce employee has already been criminally charged.

“On October 19, 2023, Respondent entered a guilty plea in the District Court of Webb County, Texas, to one count of third degree felony theft based on the misconduct just summarized.”

The FDIC says Fernandez’s actions, which caused the International Bank of Commerce a financial loss, violated the law and constituted unsafe and unsound banking practices. Consequently, Fernandez is barred from working in US-based banks and other financial institutions regulated by the FDIC.

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