TD Bank pleads guilty to enabling money laundering and other crimes
TD Bank pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges Thursday, agreeing to pay more than $3 billion in fines for enabling drug traffickers and other criminals to open accounts and transfer money through the bank.
Federal prosecutors said the bank violated the law when it did not properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions that stretched back over a decade.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the agreement and said the Canadian bank – the 10th largest in the United States – is the first in American history to plead guilty to conspiring to launder money.
TD Bank also pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to report suspicious activity and maintain effective anti-money-laundering programs. Justice Department officials said they fined the bank for every day it failed to comply with the act between 2014 and 2023.
A bank employee entered the guilty plea on behalf of the financial institution.
TD Bank employees knew about the criminal activity – some of which involved cartels and fentanyl – and joked about it, federal officials said. At least two employees accepted bribes, the officials said.
Prosecutors also charged two dozen individuals in money laundering schemes that allegedly involved transferring more than $670 million in illicit funds through TD Bank Accounts, and charged two bank employees for their alleged involvement.
Speaking at Justice Department headquarters, Garland said more people could be prosecuted.
“Federal anti-money-laundering laws are designed to prevent criminals from using U.S. banks to fuel their crimes,” Garland said. “Our laws dictate that the narcotics traffickers who flood our communities with deadly drugs cannot use American financial institutions to move their money.”
The investigation and subsequent enforcement action against the bank involved numerous federal agencies, including the Justice Department, Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
At the news conference, Garland and other officials detailed three money laundering networks that leveraged TD Bank’s weak monitoring systems.
During a three-year period, a person whom TD Bank employees referred to as “David” moved more $470 million in funds for drug operations through different American TD Bank branches, Garland said.
That individual also pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme, Garland said. He is accused of trying to launder his drug money through other banks but found TD Bank to be the most permissive of his efforts and of bribing TD Bank employees with more than $57,000 in gift cards as he laundered his money.
“TD Bank employees at many levels understood and acknowledged the likely illegality of David’s activity,” Garland said.
In another scheme, five bank employees worked with criminal groups to open accounts that were used to launder $39 million to Colombia that included drug proceeds, federal officials said. As part of the operation, the group reused the same Venezuelan passports to open multiple accounts at TD Bank, prosecutors said.
Federal officials said the bank agreed to develop a more stringent corporate compliance program. TD Bank said in a statement that it has the finances to comply with the penalties.
“We have taken full responsibility for the failures of our U.S. [anti-money laundering] program and are making the investments, changes and enhancements required to deliver on our commitments,” said Bharat Masrani, group president and chief executive of TD Bank Group. “This is a difficult chapter in our Bank’s history. These failures took place on my watch as CEO and I apologize to all our stakeholders.”