Ex-Regions worker accused of theft, banned from banking

A Regions Bank employee who was allegedly caught stealing almost $18,000 from his teller drawer has been banned from the banking industry, according to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

The lifetime ban for Markel O’Neal Calhoun, a former Regions branch associate in Birmingham, Alabama, came in an order released on Tuesday. Over the course of eight days in February 2024, the Fed said, Calhoun managed to embezzle $17,981 “for his personal benefit.”

“Calhoun’s conduct constituted violations of law or regulation, unsafe or unsound banking practices, and breaches of fiduciary duty, and involved his personal dishonesty and his willful and continuing disregard for the safety and soundness of the Bank,” the Fed wrote.

Under the order, Calhoun may never again participate “in any manner” in the business of banks, vote for a bank director or serve as a bank employee or officer.

Calhoun signed the document, signifying that he consented to the sanction without admitting or denying any of the allegations, the Fed said. He also waived his rights to legally challenge the order.

Regions is the banking subsidiary of Regions Financial, which has $159 billion of assets and 1,260 branches across 16 states in the South and Midwest.

Calhoun worked for the bank from October 2023 to March 2024, when he was fired. In June 2025, he filed for bankruptcy, according to documents seen by American Banker.

In a statement, Regions thanked the Fed for handling the case and promised to fully cooperate in any further proceedings.

“We appreciate the work of the Federal Reserve Board as it works to bring this matter to justice,” a spokesperson for Regions told American Banker in an email. “Our company deeply values the trust our customers place in us; if that trust is ever violated, that goes against everything we believe in.”

A lawyer for Calhoun did not respond to American Banker’s request for comment by the time this article was published. The Fed declined to comment beyond what it wrote in the order.

Calhoun is the seventh person that the Fed has barred from working in the banking industry so far in 2025, which is the highest number of bans by the central bank in a single year since 2022, according to Fed data.

Five of the seven cases this year involved either alleged embezzlement or misappropriation of bank or customer funds.

In March, a former deputy operations manager at a branch of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico was banned from the industry after alleging misappropriating $19,800 from the bank.

In June, a onetime relationship banker at Arvest Bank in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was kicked out of the industry after allegedly misappropriating more than $42,000 in customer funds for his personal benefit. That same month, a former employee of Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu was banned after allegedly embezzling $44,000 in customer funds and falsifying the customers’ signatures on withdrawal slips.

And earlier this month, a former teller at First Horizon Bank was banned from the industry after allegedly embezzling $34,000 from the Memphis, Tennessee-based bank.