TD Bank Pleads Guilty to Bank Secrecy Act and Money Laundering Conspiracy Violations in $1.8B Resolution.

On Thursday, October 10, 2024, TD Bank N.A. (TDBNA), the 10th largest bank in the United States, and its parent company TD Bank US Holding Company (TDBUSH) (together with TDBNA, TD Bank) pleaded guilty and agreed to pay over $1.8 billion in penalties to resolve the Justice Department’s investigation into violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and money laundering.

GUILTY

• TDBNA pleaded guilty to conspiring to fail to maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) program that complies with the BSA, failing to file accurate Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs), and laundering money.
• TDBUSH pleaded guilty to causing TDBNA to fail to maintain an AML program that complies with the BSA and to fail to file accurate CTRs.

ALL CAN BE READ HERE

• https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/td-bank-pleads-guilty-bank-secrecy-act-and-money-laundering-conspiracy-violations-18b
• TD Bank US Holding Company Information = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373341/dl
• TD Bank N.A. Information = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373346/dl
• TD Bank US Holding Company Plea Agreement and Attachments = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373351/dl
• TD Bank N.A. Plea Agreement and Attachments = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373336/dl

TEN HIGHLIGHTS OF FAILURE

1. For over a decade, TD Bank should have [but did not] monitored trillions of dollars in transactions, including nearly all domestic ACH transactions.
2. The bank's transaction monitoring system did not cover 98% of domestic ACH transactions and roughly half of all fund transfers.
3. TD Bank knowingly failed to monitor over $100 billion in non-Zelle peer-to-peer transactions, such as Venmo.
4. The bank processed over $750 million in ATM withdrawals from five high-risk Latin American and Caribbean jurisdictions.
5. A TD Bank employee opened over 2,000 accounts and conducted more than 600,000 transactions, aggregating over $200 million. Many of these were shell companies with nominee owners.
6. The bank failed to timely report suspicious activity related to human trafficking, including over $3.5 million in transactions for a purported HVAC company that was linked to trafficking.
7. TD Bank onboarded accounts for a religious institution despite its leader's ties to terrorist organisations and involvement as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings.
8. The bank filed CTRs with incorrect information for over 500 transactions totalling more than $400 million tied to a single money laundering, misleading law enforcement.
9. TD Bank's AML staff knew that "bad actors target TD [Bank]" for funnel account activity, yet failed to implement adequate controls for years.
10. The bank allowed a customer purportedly in the computer manufacturing industry to process over $1 billion in transactions in nine months, despite the customer estimating annual sales would be at most $1 million.

SOURCES

• https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/td-bank-pleads-guilty-bank-secrecy-act-and-money-laundering-conspiracy-violations-18b
• TD Bank US Holding Company Information = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373341/dl
• TD Bank N.A. Information = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373346/dl
• TD Bank US Holding Company Plea Agreement and Attachments = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373351/dl
• TD Bank N.A. Plea Agreement and Attachments = https://www.justice.gov/media/1373336/dl