By james art We are all disappointed in Attorney General Merrick Garland. This is a standing condition of the Biden administration. But under his leadership, the Justice Department racked up more than a few big victories on the financial crime front. The good folks at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have highlighted the latest of these.
The bank agreed to plead guilty to charges that it violated the Bank Secrecy Act in federal court in New Jersey last week. TD also settled a number of civil investigations by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Between the criminal charges and the civil lawsuits, the bank agreed to pay a total of more than $3 billion to U.S. authorities, including $1.3 billion to FinCEN — which the Treasury Department described as “historic.
According to prosecutors, TD Bank’s U.S. division failed to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls for nearly a decade, from 2014 to 2023, during which time prosecutors said multiple criminal enterprises were able to conduct transactions through the bank. This included a Chinese drug-trafficking group that bribed bank officials and eventually laundered more than $470 million in cash related to the sale of fentanyl and other illegal drugs, as well as another money-laundering scheme that has sent tens of millions of dollars to Colombia.
I don’t mean to be critical and I’m glad the DOJ is making the bank’s books bleed, but considering we spent two years blaming starving Guatemalans in the Arizona desert for the country’s fentanyl problem, isn’t it Time shall we start throwing a few of the people who launder money for the real smugglers into the federal hosgow for a spell? I have 470 million reasons why.