TD Bank pleaded guilty on Thursday in a money-laundering case and will pay $3 billion in a historic settlement.
Between January 2014 and October 2023, TD Bank had “long-term, pervasive, and systemic deficiencies” in its U.S. anti-money laundering policies, procedures and controls but failed to fix them, according to court documents cited by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a press release on Thursday.
“By making its services convenient for criminals, TD Bank became one,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “Today, TD Bank also became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures, and the first US bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
Garland continued: “TD Bank chose profits over compliance with the law—a decision that is now costing the bank billions of dollars in penalties. Let me be clear: our investigation continues, and no individual involved in TD Bank’s illegal conduct is off limits.”
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TD Bank, which is the 10th largest bank in the U.S., pleaded guilty to conspiring to fail to maintain an anti-money laundering program that complies with the Bank Secrecy Act, failing to file accurate Currency Transaction Reports and laundering money. Meanwhile, its parent company, TD Bank U.S. Holding Company, pleaded guilty to causing TD Bank to fail to maintain the anti-money laundering program and to fail to file accurate reports.
The settlement is broken up into a $1.3 billion penalty that will be paid to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and a $1.8 billion penalty to the DOJ. The bank also agreed to three years of monitoring and five years of probation.
TD Bank’s CEO Bharat Masrani said the company takes full responsibility and has cooperated with authorities.
The bank also agreed to fix and enhance its anti-money laundering program. Masrani said the company has been taking steps to do so, which includes appointing new leadership and employing hundreds of new specialists.
“We know what the issues are, we are fixing them. As we move forward, we’re ensuring that this never happens again,” Masrani said. “And I’m 100 percent confident that we get to the other side and emerge even stronger.”
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo spoke about how TD Bank became “fertile ground” for criminal activity.
“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,” Adeyemo said.
The DOJ has charged over 20 people for involvement in money-laundering schemes, which includes two TD Bank employees. Investigations of individuals remain ongoing, which TD Bank agreed to cooperate in.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
