TD Bank anti-money laundering employee in U.S. faces New York criminal charge

An American TD Bank worker who worked successful the bank’s heavy scrutinized anti-money laundering section has been criminally indicted successful New York, the Manhattan territory lawyer announced Thursday.

Daria Sewell is charged with unlawful possession of idiosyncratic identifying accusation she allegedly stole from TD Bank customers and distributed connected Telegram, according to a connection from Alvin Bragg’s office.

The indictment comes soon aft TD Bank’s U.S. limb pleaded blameworthy to violating a U.S. law aimed astatine preventing money laundering — the largest slope ever to bash truthful — and was deed with a historical US$3 cardinal fine.

“This suspect allegedly abused her entree portion moving successful TD Bank’s anti-money laundering section to bargain from the bank’s ain customers,” Bragg said successful a statement.

“Telegram tin beryllium a hotbed for transgression activity, and we person uncovered everything from fraud to the merchantability of amerciable firearms and the financing of terrorism.”

The charges against Sewell stemmed from a larger probe that charged 5 much radical successful an alleged cheque fraud strategy that totaled astir US$500,000, the territory attorney’s bureau said, which allegedly saw the accused deposit stolen cheques into their idiosyncratic slope accounts.

The probe recovered the different 5 defendants, among others, allegedly communicated with Sewell astir “strategies for committing” cheque fraud.

According to the indictment, a hunt warrant executed connected Sewell’s telephone recovered she had images of 255 cheques with names of TD Bank customers, on with idiosyncratic accusation of astir 70 different customers including names, addresses and societal information numbers.

Sewell past allegedly distributed the accusation connected a Telegram transmission she operated, and would instruct others to unfastened slope accounts to deposit the cheques. She would past divided the profits with those people, according to the indictment.

The 32-year-old Sewell, a New York nonmigratory who worked for TD from 2023 to May 2024, has not yet responded to the complaint and the allegations successful the indictment.

Bragg’s bureau said the probe into the cheque fraud strategy and Sewell’s alleged behaviour remains ongoing.

In its indictment of TD Bank’s U.S. divisions past year, the U.S. authorities had accused TD of ignoring aggregate reddish flags from high-risk customers and creating a “convenient” situation for wealth laundering.

TD’s nonaccomplishment connected wealth laundering controls allowed criminals to launder much than US$670 cardinal done the slope implicit six years, including profits from fentanyl trafficking., according to U.S. authorities.

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TD Bank’s colony of the charges included accepting an plus headdress connected its U.S. concern interests, preventing it from expanding immoderate further.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a predominant professional of fiscal institutions, wrote to the U.S. lawyer wide past week that the colony failed to clasp firm executives accountable.

Warren said some executives and the slope itself were capable to flight the afloat scope of penalties that Congress could person levied, contempt allowing the slope “to enactment arsenic a transgression slush money and wounded hundreds of thousands of people.”

TD has said it is making the investments, changes and enhancements required to present connected commitments regarding its anti-money laundering programme some successful Canada and the U.S.

Fintrac, Canada’s nationalist fiscal quality bureau imposed a grounds $9.2 cardinal punishment connected TD earlier this twelvemonth for lax wealth laundering controls.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said past period helium is “concerned” astir the actions alleged astatine TD, and the national authorities says it has introduced a important fig of measures to fortify Canada’s wealth laundering oversight.

— with files from the Canadian Press