FinCEN fines TD Bank $1,3 billion for suspicious transactions for crypto firms

The bank conducted more than $1 billion in transfers for an unnamed firm to high-risk foreign companies over nine months

15.10.2024 - 13:40

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2 min

What’s new? The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within the US Department of the Treasury has fined TD Bank $1,3 billion for violating anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. TD Bank is one of Canada’s largest banks, and it also serves more than 10 million customers in the States. After analyzing the transactions, FinCEN said that TD Bank did not report suspicious transactions related to crypto firms.

FinCEN statement

What else is known? Officials say the bank processed high-risk transactions for an unidentified organization. Its representatives made monthly wire transfers of more than $100 million. The funds were used to trade cryptocurrency with companies in various industries in Colombia, China, and Middle Eastern countries.

Between July 2023 and April 2024, this firm’s transaction volume at TD Bank exceeded $1 billion. However, when the account was opened, it was positioned as a real estate firm with less than $1 million in annual transactions.

90% of the funds into the firm’s account came from an unnamed crypto exchange registered in the UK. 60% of outgoing transactions went to a financial institution in Colombia, which is also involved in cryptocurrencies. Specifically, a one-time transfer of $420 million was recorded to this unnamed Colombian institution.

FinCEN claims that a group of TD Bank customers are also connected to a certain international crypto exchange and received more than $650 million from it.

The bank itself did not use internal regulations to screen cryptocurrency customers when processing transactions and did not report the transactions to regulators until it began receiving inquiries about the unnamed firm’s activities.

TD Bank admitted to violating AML laws and of the $3 billion fine, $1,3 billion was remitted to FinCEN. Another $1,89 was sent to the DOJ, $123,5 million to the Fed, and $450 million to the Treasury Department’s Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

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