CHERRY HILL, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — TD Bank pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the largest bank in U.S. history to do so, and will pay approximately $3 billion in a settlement with authorities.
Lax practices at TD Bank, based in Canada, with U.S. headquarters in Cherry Hill, N.J., allowed significant money laundering over multiple years, Attorney General Merrick Garland said said Thursday.
Garland says TD Bank built a culture welcoming to criminals, drug cartels and those who wanted to deposit large amounts of cash with no questions asked.
“Over the course of a three year period, a person TD Bank employees knew as ‘David’ moved over $470-million in illicit funds through TD Bank branches in the United States,” Garland said.
"TD Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish. By making its services convenient for criminals, it became one."
Garland says their brazen lack of oversight had become the subject of employee chatter as people were coming into deposit massive piles of cash, in some instances a million dollars at a time.
“In late 2020, another store manager implored his supervisors, several TD Bank regional managers, to act, noting that 'it is getting out of hand and my tellers are at the point that they don’t feel comfortable handling these transactions.'”
He says money was quickly transferred overseas to Colombia and other countries. This was known at the highest level of the company. Garland says the problems were so bad, employees openly joked about their criminal-friendly policies amongst themselves.
“At various times, high-level executives, including the person who became the bank’s chief anti-money laundering officer, knew there were serious problems with the bank’s anti-money laundering program.”
The CEO of the bank, the 10th largest in the United States, said it takes full responsibility and has been cooperating with the investigation.
"This is a difficult chapter in our Bank's history," TD Bank CEO Bharat Masrani said in a statement. "The board has and continues to take action to address these failures and hold those responsible accountable."
The Justice Department said the bank allowed money laundering networks to move $670 million through TD Bank accounts over a period of several years.
The institution became the bank of choice for multiple criminals and money laundering organizations, authorities said.
"From fentanyl and narcotics trafficking, to terrorist financing and human trafficking, TD Bank's chronic failures provided fertile ground for a host of illicit activity to penetrate our financial system," said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.
In one case, bank employees helped a criminal network launder tens of millions of dollars, said Nicole Argentieri, head of the department's Criminal Division.
There were also piles of cash dumped on a bank's counters and ATM withdrawals that totaled 40 times to 50 times higher than the daily limits, said Philip Sellinger, U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
The bank's "long-term, pervasive, and systemic deficiencies" in its policies over a period of nine years allowed such abuses to flourish, prosecutors said.
Two dozen people have been prosecuted for involvement in money-laundering schemes, including two TD Bank employees, Garland said. The investigation is ongoing.
The bank has also agreed to major restructuring of the corporate compliance program in its U.S. operations, as well as three years of monitoring and five years of probation.