TD Bank is currently prominent for money laundering violations, becoming the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) failures and conspiracy to launder over $653 million for criminal networks in 2024, resulting in over $3 billion in penalties.
1. Danske Bank – The €200 Billion Scandal. Overview: Between 2007 and 2015, Danske Bank, Denmark's largest lender, became the center of one of the biggest money laundering scandals in history.
Announcing the penalties, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference that TD Bank was “the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures and the first U.S. bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
“Today, TD Bank also became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures, and the first US bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Lawsuit Raises Questions Over TD Bank's Crackdown Against Corrupt Insiders. In October 2024, U.S. authorities hit TD Bank with a record $3.1 billion in penalties, accusing the lender of willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act and allowing roughly $1.5 billion worth of suspicious transactions to go unreported.
Nearly 40% of the dirty money in the world is going through the City of London and other crown dependencies, the UK's deputy foreign secretary has said.
TD's stock makes a huge comeback, with the bank continuing to put its U.S. troubles behind it. Toronto-Dominion Bank was staring down the barrel a year ago after agencies in the United States fined Canada's second-largest bank $3.1 billion and restricted its growth down south for failing to prevent money laundering.
Illegal drug trafficking remains the highest money laundering threat in Canada, followed by fraud, commercial trade fraud and trade-based money laundering, and tax crimes. These threats are each estimated to involve billions of dollars in illicit proceeds annually in Canada.
Yes, TD Bank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). 4 This means that eligible deposits, like checking, savings, money-market accounts, and CDs, are protected up to $250,000 per depositor, per ownership category.
A mule account is a bank account used by criminals to receive, transfer, or launder illicit funds without the knowledge or sometimes with the complicity of the account holder.
Red flags of money laundering
Unusual financial activity that deviates from a customer's normal transaction patterns. Large cash deposits with no clear justification for their origin. Evasive or defensive responses when questioned about transactions. Discrepancies in provided information or documentation.
Warning signs include:
Top Money Laundering Statistics in 2025
The top 10 FCA AML fines from the last decade and what they tell us about AML priorities
You can deposit any amount of cash without being automatically flagged if it's under $10,000 in a single transaction, but banks must report deposits of $10,000 or more to the IRS via a Currency Transaction Report (CTR). While large, legitimate deposits are fine, making multiple deposits to stay under $10,000 (structuring) is illegal and triggers Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), leading to potential account freezes or law enforcement scrutiny, so transparency with your bank is best for large sums.
Penalties for Theft
If the items are valued at less than $5,000.00, the person can be charged with either a summary offence or an indictable offence. If convicted of a summary offence, the person may receive a fine of up to $5,000.00 or 2 years in prison (or a combination of both);
TD Bank is closing more branches throughout this year and next. The bank is closing more branches at the end of 2025 and into 2026 after closing 38 branches, including six in New Jersey, earlier in 2025 as part of a corporate restructuring plan.
Yes, your money is safe in the bank as long as it's in an FDIC-insured institution, and we recommend keeping it there in 2026.
Depositing $2,000 in cash isn't inherently suspicious and is well below the $10,000 reporting threshold for banks, but it can raise flags if it's part of a pattern (structuring), inconsistent with your normal income, or involves other red flags like frequent large cash deposits from others, leading to a potential Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). To avoid issues, have clear records for the cash's source, like invoices or sales receipts, especially if you deal in cash often.
While most banks offer limits between Rs. 20,000-Rs. 50,000, premium cards from SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak, and IDFC can allow withdrawals up to Rs. 10,00,000 daily.
The "$10,000 bank rule" refers to federal laws requiring financial institutions and businesses to report large cash transactions (deposits, withdrawals, payments) of over $10,000 in currency to the government to combat money laundering and financial crimes. Banks file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) for cash activity over $10,000, while businesses file Form 8300 for similar payments, both sending info to FinCEN and the IRS to track illicit funds.