TD Bank pleads guilty in money laundering case, agrees to pay $3 billion in penalties

TD Bank pled guilty to violating federal law on money laundering prevention, and agreed to pay a combined $3 billion in penalties, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

The resolution was reached with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), as well as the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement that TD Bank made "services convenient for criminals" and became a criminal itself.

“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," he said. "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."

DOJ said that TD Bank’s failures related to AML regulations made it “convenient” for criminals to launder money. 

"These failures enabled three money laundering networks to collectively transfer more than $670 million through TD Bank accounts between 2019 and 2023," the agency said. "Between January 2018 and February 2021, one money laundering network processed more than $470 million through the bank through large cash deposits into nominee accounts."