TD Bank fined $3B for failing to prevent money laundering by drug cartels

TD Bank became the largest bank in US history to plead guilty to violating a federal law aimed at preventing money laundering, and agreed to pay $3 billion in penalties to resolve the charges, government authorities said on Thursday.TD’s plea deal includes imposition of an asset cap and other limitations to its business, authorities said.The bank has pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and conspiring to fail to file accurate reports or maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program, the Justice Department said.TD failed to monitor over $18 trillion in customer activity for about a decade, enabling three money laundering networks to transfer illicit funds through accounts at the bank, US authorities said, describing the issues as pervasive.Bank employees “openly joked” about the lack of compliance on multiple occasions, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters during a briefing on the plea deal.“TD Bank chose profits over compliance in order to keep its costs down,” Garland said.

He said TD was the largest bank to admit to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act.In some cases, TD did not flag suspicious activity until law enforcement raised attention to it, authorities said.The asset cap, imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is a rare step typically reserved for severe cases. It deals a major blow to TD, which has sought to expand further in the US, which accounts for about a third of the bank’s income.The deal also prevents TD Bank from opening a new branch or entering a new market without the OCC’s approval, regulators said.The $3 billion in combined penalties will go to the Justice Department, US banking regulators, and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.The deal resolves investigations by the Justice Department, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.It is also includes the imposition of independent monit...