U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren says TD executives were let off easy in money laundering settlement

A U.S. senator is raising concerns that TD Bank Group executives did not face charges as part of the bank’s settlement over its failure to detect large-scale money laundering.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a letter to the U.S. attorney general that the settlement, which included more than $3 billion US in fines and a cap on asset growth, failed to hold corporate executives accountable.

Warren says both executives and the bank itself were able to escape the full scope of penalties that Congress could have levied, despite allowing the bank “to act as a criminal slush fund and hurt hundreds of thousands of people.”

TD’s failure on anti-money-laundering controls allowed criminals to launder more than $670 million US through the bank over six years, including profits from fentanyl trafficking.

Warren says unless executives are held accountable, banks will continue to factor enforcement fines into the cost of doing business, rather than approaching compliance with money laundering laws with the seriousness it requires.

TD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Canadian Press.