TD Bank to pay more than $3 billion to the US in…

TD Bank has agreed to pay $3 billion in fines for failing to adequately monitor money laundering by drug cartels, U.S. officials say

Canada’s TD Bank has agreed to pay more than $3 billion in fines for failing to adequately monitor money laundering by drug cartels, U.S. officials said Thursday.

TD Bank, the 10th largest bank in the United States, has pleaded guilty to multiple crimes, including violating the Bank Secrecy Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

“TD Bank created an environment for financial crime to flourish by making its services easy for criminals,” Garland said at a news conference.

“Our anti-money laundering laws dictate that a bank that deliberately fails to protect against criminal schemes is also a criminal,” Garland said. “That’s what TD Bank was.”

Criminal investigations into individual employees at TD Bank were “active and ongoing,” Garland added.

Garland said TD Bank failed to monitor $18.3 trillion in customer activity between January 2014 and October 2023, allowing three money laundering networks to transfer more than $670 million through TD Bank accounts.

Under the settlement, TD Bank will pay $1.8 billion to the Department of Justice and an additional $1.3 billion assessed by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Coin also imposed a so-called asset limit on the bank, limiting growth in the United States above current asset levels.

“From fentanyl and narcotics trafficking to terrorist financing and human trafficking, TD Bank’s chronic failures have provided fertile ground for a host of illicit activities to enter our financial system,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo .

The Treasury Department said suspicious activity that was not properly monitored or reported by TD Bank included $400 million in transactions involving Da Ying Sze, a New York man who pleaded guilty in 2022 to laundering proceeds from the trafficking of narcotics.

Shares of TD Bank traded almost five percent lower on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.