"This is not an acceptable outcome."
US Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the United States Department of Justice to explain why top executives at Toronto-Dominion Bank were not charged due to the bank's failure to prevent money laundering. She also pressed the department over why it didn't charge TD with money laundering rather than conspiracy to launder money, to which the bank pleaded guilty this month.
A guilty plea to money-laundering charges could have activated the "death penalty" provision by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which, according to Warren, would require the regulator to issue Toronto-Dominion a notice of intent to terminate its charter and conduct a hearing to consider potential revocation.
Warren made the claims in a letter to Attorney Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco dated Wednesday and distributed Thursday.
“These charging decisions represent absurd legal gymnastics by DOJ that ultimately have allowed the bank and its top executives to avoid full responsibility for their actions,” Warren said. “This is not an acceptable outcome.”
According to BNN Bloomberg, a representative for Toronto-Dominion declined to comment Thursday, while representatives for the Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Toronto-Dominion will pay close to $3.1 billion in fines and penalties while facing a cap on its US retail banking assets after admitting to a role in three money-laundering schemes.
According to prosecutors, the Bank's anti-money-laundering program failed to detect suspicious activities and report them to authorities.
