TD Bank to pay more than $3 bn to US in money-laundering case

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

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

"TD Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish by making its services convenient for criminals," Garland said at a press conference.

"Our anti-money laundering laws dictate that a bank that willfully fails to protect against criminal schemes is also a criminal," Garland said. "That is what TD Bank was."

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

Under the settlement, TD Bank will pay $1.8 billion to the Justice Department and another $1.3 billion assessed by the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

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Criminal investigations into individual employees at TD Bank were "active and ongoing," Garland said.

Source: AFP