TD Bank is moving closer to a possible guilty plea in a money laundering investigation

NEW YORK: TD Bank is close to a possible guilty plea over allegations that its US retail bank failed to curb money laundering linked to Chinese crime groups and illegal fentanyl sales, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Canada’s second-largest lender is in talks with U.S. federal prosecutors and its U.S. retail unit is expected to file a lawsuit in two weeks, the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

TD Bank and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The bank said in May it had undertaken a major overhaul of its U.S. and global anti-money laundering programs.

The bank said at the time that it had invested over 500 million Canadian dollars (US$400 million) in program fixes and platform improvements as it was the subject of regulatory investigations in Canada and the United States into its anti-money laundering compliance program.

U.S. authorities accused TD of being reckless in failing to build and maintain anti-money laundering systems, the Journal said.

The newspaper said the parent company had set aside more than $3 billion to cover the costs of settling U.S. government investigations.

The Justice Department opened an investigation into the bank after agents uncovered an operation in New York and New Jersey that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal drug proceeds through TD and other banks, the Journal reported in May. —Reuters