Former TD worker charged in cash laundering case

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The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested and charged one other former Toronto-Dominion Bank worker with conspiracy to launder cash, the most recent in a string of prices tied to the lender’s huge compliance failures at its American retail enterprise.

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Leonardo Ayala, 24, who labored at a Toronto-Dominion department in Doral, Florida, from February to November 2023, made a primary look in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday, the Justice Department stated in a press release Wednesday.

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Beginning final June, Ayala allegedly used his position as a “buyer liaison” to facilitate cash laundering by issuing dozens of debit playing cards for accounts that one other worker had opened within the names of shell firms. The accounts had been then allegedly used to launder tens of millions of {dollars} in drug cash by means of money withdrawals at Colombian ATMs.

The cost towards Ayala comes two months after the Justice Department, United States Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency introduced a decision of sweeping probes into the Canadian financial institution’s failures to catch cash laundering by drug cartels and different criminals. The financial institution agreed to pay nearly US$3.1 billion in fines and different penalties and faces a cap on its U.S. retail-banking property.

Documents filed by the Justice Department outlined three separate money-laundering conspiracies perpetrated by means of Toronto-Dominion financial institution branches.

Two former Toronto-Dominion workers had been already publicly charged in the identical conspiracy as Ayala, which was dubbed the “Colombian ATM typology.” One of the staff was from New Jersey and a second was from Florida, and prosecutors stated in October that they had recognized a complete of 5 financial institution insiders who helped the money-laundering ring, sometimes in return for a payment.

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“Ayala repeatedly and corruptly issued quite a few debit playing cards for TD Bank accounts initially opened in New Jersey, and had these debit playing cards mailed to an handle in New Jersey, regardless of understanding that he was being directed to take action by people that weren’t the recognized account holder,” prosecutors stated in a prison criticism filed within the case on Tuesday.

Ayala is alleged to have acquired funds totaling US$2,900 from a Venezuelan nationwide over a money-transfer app, in accordance with the doc.

“We recognized the exercise, reported it, and cooperated intently with authorities of their investigation. We proceed to actively assist their efforts,” Toronto-Dominion spokesperson Elizabeth Goldenshtein stated in an e-mail Wednesday.

Ayala, reached by cellphone, declined to remark.

Bloomberg.com

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