According to Foresight News, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency (FinCEN) accused banking giant TD Bank of failing to report suspicious activities from an anonymous customer group engaged in international cryptocurrency transactions. FinCEN said that TD Bank processed more than 2,000 transactions from a company called "Customer Group C" (engaged in sales financing and real estate industries) in nine months. Customer Group C falsely reported its expected international wire transfer activities to TD Bank, saying that its annual sales would not exceed $1 million. In fact, Customer Group C allegedly conducted more than $1 billion in transactions through TD Bank. Customer Group C's funds came from a British cryptocurrency exchange and sent 60% of the funds to a Colombian financial institution that provides services related to digital assets. TD Bank failed to proactively report this suspicious activity until it received multiple law enforcement inquiries about Customer Group C.
On October 10, TD Bank pleaded guilty to violating the (Bank Secrecy Act) and money laundering and agreed to pay a $1.8 billion fine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, FinCEN fined TD Bank $1.3 billion and placed it under four years of surveillance for the same violations. The $3.09 billion was called "the largest fine ever imposed under the (Bank Secrecy Act)."
