NEW YORK: TD Bank is close to a possible guilty plea to criminal charges that its US retail bank failed to curb money laundering tied to Chinese crime groups and illicit fentanyl sales, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Canada’s second-largest lender is in talks with US federal prosecutors and its US retail arm is expected to enter a plea in two weeks, the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
TD Bank and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The bank had said in May it had undertaken a comprehensive overhaul of its US and global anti-money laundering programme.
The bank said at the time it had invested over C$500mil (US$400mil) in programme remediation and platform enhancements as it had been subject to regulatory probes over its money-laundering compliance programme in Canada and the United States.
US authorities have alleged that TD was reckless in failing to build and maintain systems to prevent money laundering, the Journal said.
The newspaper said the parent company has set aside more than US$3bil to cover the costs of resolving US government investigations.
The Department of Justice launched an investigation into the bank after agents uncovered an operation in New York and New Jersey that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds from illicit narcotics through TD and other banks, the Journal reported in May. — Reuters
