(Reuters) – TD Bank is close to a possible guilty plea on criminal charges that its U.S. retail bank failed to curb money laundering linked to Chinese criminal groups and illicit sales of fentanyl, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Canada’s second-largest lender is in talks with U.S. federal prosecutors and its U.S. retail division is expected to enter a guilty plea within two weeks, the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
TD Bank and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The bank said in May it had undertaken a comprehensive review of its U.S. and global anti-money laundering program.
The bank said at the time that it had invested more than C$500 million ($400 million) in program remediation and platform improvements as it had been subject to regulatory investigations into its money laundering compliance program in Canada and the United States.
U.S. authorities have alleged that TD was reckless in failing to build and maintain systems to prevent money laundering, the Journal said.
The newspaper said the parent company has set aside more than $3 billion to cover the costs of resolving US government investigations.
The Justice Department launched an investigation into the bank after agents uncovered an operation in New York and New Jersey that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit narcotics profits through TD and other banks, the Journal reported in May.
($1 = 1.3512 Canadian dollars)