TD Bank to Pay $3 Billion in Fines for Failing to Monitor Drug Cartel Money Laundering

The Justice Department announced Thursday that TD Bank will pay more than $3 billion in fines and penalties for its failure to oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in money laundering operations by drug cartels.

“TD Bank created an environment where financial crimes could flourish. By making its services easy for criminals, it became an environment,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference earlier today, as reported by CNN.

Between January 2018 and April 2024, approximately 92 percent of transactions went unaudited, allowing “three money laundering networks to collectively transfer more than $670 million through TD Bank accounts.”

In one of these operations, TD Bank employees received more than $57,000 in gift cards in exchange for processing cash deposits from a money laundering network, totaling more than $470 million. The gift cards guaranteed that these employees would “continue to process their transactions” and not report the illegal activity.

According to The Hill, criminal organizations were able to open accounts and launder $39 million to Colombia with the help of five TD Bank employees.

“Despite significant internal red flags, the Bank did not determine that its own employees conspired to launder tens of millions of dollars into Colombia until law enforcement arrested them,” Garrick said.