Joplin bank officers terminated; investigation under way

P. Lee Gilbert – chairman, president and CEO of Springfield-based Mid-Missouri Bancshares Inc. — confirmed in a telephone interview April 13 that Scott Rosenthal, president and CEO of Mid-Missouri Bank at 2230 E. 32nd St. in Joplin, and Kayla Muskrat, a loan officer at the bank, were “terminated for cause.”

Gilbert declined to disclose the cause of termination, but said two other employees at that branch — Chris Couch and Frank McReynolds — have been suspended in addition to the terminations of Rosenthal and Muskrat.

“The only thing I can tell you is that they’ll be suspended until the completion of the investigation,” Gilbert said. “The investigation will be centered around four different divisions: the Missouri Division of Finance, the (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.), the FBI and the bonding company.”

Rosenthal is a former employee of Southwest Missouri Bank and past chairman of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

Joplin Tri-State Business left two messages on April 13 at the Carthage number listed for Rosenthal.

JTB also left a telephone message at Muskrat’s home. The calls were not returned before press time.

Gilbert said operations at the bank will continue as normal and that no customer accounts are in question or under investigation at this time.

“Everything is all go,” Gilbert said. “It will continue to be ongoing just as it is.”

The 32nd Street location was formerly one of three locations of Bank of Joplin, a branch of Webb City Bank. The holding company for Bank of Joplin and Webb City Bank merged with two other companies into Mid-Missouri Bancshares Inc. in 2006.

The banks had combined assets of about $800 million at the time of the merger.

Joplin Tri-State Business Editor Jeff Wells contributed to this article, which originally appeared in SBJ’s April 13 Breaking News e-newsletter. Click here to register.