Posted on 10/10/2024 7:55:37 PM PDT by jerod
Toronto-Dominion Bank has been ordered to pay a total of $3.09 billion US in fines after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and commit money laundering.
The bank has also received a cease-and-desist order and non-financial sanctions from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), including an asset cap that put limits on its growth in the U.S. after it was found that TD had "significant, systemic breakdowns in its transaction monitoring program."
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said TD created an environment "that allowed financial crime to flourish."
"By making its services convenient for criminals, it became one," he said in a press conference Thursday. "Today, TD Bank became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures, and the first bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering."
He said TD admitted in its plea agreement it allowed three money-laundering networks to transfer more than $670 million US through TD Bank accounts over a six-year period, actions which many employees were aware of, yet went unaddressed.
At least one of those schemes involved five TD Bank employees laundering drug proceeds.
The sweeping penalties announced on Thursday include consequences meted out by several regulators, including the OCC and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), with the combined fines adding up to just over $3 billion US.
As part of this, TD Bank has agreed to pay more than $1.8 billion US to the DOJ in penalties for criminal charges.
Bharat Masrani, CEO of TD Bank Group, said in a statement that the bank has "taken full responsibility," and will be making "the investments, changes and enhancements required to deliver on our commitments."
"This is a difficult chapter in our bank's history. These failures took place on my watch as CEO and I apologize to all our stakeholders."
Enormous deposits, years of suspicious activity, little action
For years, TD Bank "willfully" failed to monitor transactions properly, leaving gaping holes that allowed millions of dollars to flow through the bank, the DOJ revealed.
One money-laundering network "dumped piles of cash on the bank's counters," while another another "allegedly withdrew amounts from ATMs 40 to 50 times higher than the daily limit for personal accounts," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger for the District of New Jersey said in a statement.
In another money-laundering scheme, one TD Bank employee, identified as "David," moved more than $470 million dollars in illicit funds through TD Bank branches in the U.S. This individual, who has separately pled guilty to laundering drug proceeds through the bank, Garland said, found that "TD Bank had the most permissive policies and procedures, and so chose to launder most of his funds there."
On one occasion, David deposited more than $1 million US in cash in a single day, then moved the funds out of the bank using official bank cheques and wire transfers. More than $57,000 US in gift cards was provided to other bank employees as bribes.
Many employees were aware of the probable illegality of these actions.
In August 2021, a TD Bank store manager sent an email to another store manager, commenting, "You guys really need to shut this down. Lol," Garland said. On another occasion, a store manager implored their supervisor to do something, stating that their tellers didn't feel comfortable handling the suspicious transactions.
TD Bank's own internal audit group repeatedly highlighted concerns about the bank's transaction monitoring program between 2014 and 2022, according to the DOJ, but the program remained largely stagnant nonetheless, suffering with chronic underfunding and understaffing.
In the case involving five TD Bank employees, the DOJ stated that employees issued dozens of ATM cards to money-launderers, allowing for the laundering of approximately $39 million US. More than two dozen individuals have been charged by the Justice Department in connection with these schemes so far, including two TD bank employees.
TD Bank to restructure, undergo monitoring
The bank has agreed to a major restructuring of their anti-money-laundering program, as well as three years of monitoring and five years of probation. The implementation of any new programs or services in their U.S. branches will have to go through more stringent approval processes as well, as ordered by the OCC.
The asset cap placed on TD Bank by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will not apply to any of the bank's business in Canada or other countries. But it will curtail growth within the U.S., where TD is the 10th largest bank.
Richard Powers, an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, told CBC News prior to the ruling's announcement that approximately 25 per cent of TD's revenue comes from its U.S. operations.
"They've been growing through acquisition," he said. "If that is put on hold or if that has restrictions put on it, how do they maintain that growth?"
Last month, the bank announced that Raymond Chun would replace Masrani upon his retirement next year. The outgoing chief executive said at the time that he took responsibility for shortcomings that occurred under his watch, and echoed those sentiments on a conference call with investors and media on Thursday.
We should have done better," he said on the call. "We know what the issues are, we are fixing them as we move forward. We're ensuring that this never happens again."
TD has $370.33 Billion in assets, so $3 billion should be easy enough to come up with... And they likely made way more while laundering the cash.
For the managers that allowed this to happen, I know they understand that they can personally have been charged under the statute. I know the bank is “taking the hit” but it is one of those crimes where there is a personal liability if the government thinks it’s appropriate. That’s a lot of risk for a branch manager to take. But, their incentives are based on the growth in deposits.
I worked at a bank that TD Bank took over. I wonder if any of my old friends were accepting suitcases full of cash. I doubt it…but this really surprises me.
CBS News fined $3B US after pleading guilty in historic U.S. election interference case
maybe it’s not money laundering at all. Possibly they didn’t follow some insane law down to the letter like snitching on a legitimate business making regular deposits in regular basis which the government deems suspicious but the bank found to be harmless. That’s happened before here in the states. Nothing illegal but the IRS didn’t like it and seized a restaurants legal deposits.
If the bank employees were doing that, they should be put in jail. Not the bank.
Why should organization pay for criminal acts committed by the employees?
Why should Church or Boy Scouts pay for the sins of priests or Scout leaders?
Offset by $323.97 billion in liabilities. So it has 'only' $47.35 billion to play with.
Of course, that's only TD Bank, N.A. Then there is TD Bank USA N.A.
TD BankNorth and TD Bank USA F.S.B. don't appear to be active at this time.
Because the organization - and its shareholders - profited from the criminal activity.
My proposal for corporate criminals is to have the equivalent of a jail term for the company - place it in conservatorship for a period of years, with the dividends going to the taxpayers, not the shareholders. At the end of the prison term, the company would be returned to the shareholders of record at the time of the 'incarceration'.
Joe didn’t get ‘his 10%’....
I wonder if Justin got his share.
and the canadian truckers cheered ...
Straight from the oratory of so many American corporate executives:
Bharat Masrani, CEO of TD Bank Group, said in a statement that the bank has "taken full responsibility," and will be making "the investments, changes and enhancements required to deliver on our commitments."
. . . word salad generator . . .
And to think my ATM pukes if I try to take out more than $300 per day. Who in IT at TD Bank overrode the controls on daily limits for cash deposits and withdrawals? What level of exec sign-off is required to override these controls?
Great controls at the bank. Don't tell me these shenanigans are going on without lots of top-brass knowing about it and turning a blind eye to it.
The drug cartels aren't going to be happy with this turn of events. They no doubt worked a long time to get TD Bank to do their laundry for them.
Fraud at banks is one thing. Election fraud is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.
If NO, just normal business.
Made enough to cover the fines and still make bonuses.
I’m sure Biden’s handlers will make sure the billions in fines will go to Dim PAC “nonprofits”. Obama was makings fines go to them.
Makes one wonder how bad it’s in Canada.
He needs to resign in disgrace!
Considering all the reports and audits required, damn, Joe Biden and his minions want banks reporting deposits and withdrawals of $600 now, who in the GOVERNMENT should take the fall for YEARS and YEARS of crap going on?
They probably already know who, and are ignoring it.
Can’t have banks competing with the government.
Probably every Christmas, the members of the Mexican Cartel, send cards to each other and to the Mexican government[s]; and in the cards, the same message:
We have “taken full responsibility,” and will be making “the investments, changes and enhancements required to deliver on our commitments.”
When I read the article I was interested to see what branches were involved. None were named so I’m guessing at least some, if not all, were in New Jersey since Attorney Philip R. Sellinger for the District of New Jersey is referenced.
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