TD Bank nears possible guilty plea in money laundering probe, WSJ reports

(Reuters) – TD Bank is close to a possible guilty plea to criminal charges that its U.S. retail bank failed to curb money laundering tied to Chinese crime groups and illicit fentanyl sales, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Canada’s second-largest lender is in talks with U.S. federal prosecutors and its U.S. 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 U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The bank said in May it had undertaken a comprehensive overhaul of its U.S. and global anti-money laundering program.

The bank said at the time it had invested over C$500 million ($400 million) in program remediation and platform enhancements as it had been subject to regulatory probes over its money-laundering compliance program in Canada and the United States.

U.S. 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 $3 billion to cover the costs of resolving U.S. government investigations.

The DOJ 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.

($1 = 1.3512 Canadian dollars)