TD Bank pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to commit money laundering after a decade of shuffling funds for criminal organizations.Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T is being sued by five former employees in the United States who allege they were wrongly fired as the lender contended with an investigation by authorities that found failures in its anti-money-laundering (AML) procedures.
A group of Chinese and Chinese-American employees who previously worked in the bank’s branches in New York say they were terminated as TD attempted to address its money-laundering breaches. In 2024, TD pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering after a decade of shuffling funds for criminal organizations.
The plaintiffs claimed TD hired them to build relationships with Chinese customers. As the bank cracked down on criminal money-laundering activity, the former employees allege they were illegally dismissed and removed as customers – a process known as debanking. The plaintiffs maintain this decision was made based on their ethnicity, according to court filings with a U.S. District Court in New York.
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“TD Bank has aggressively and disparately enforced AML policies against its Chinese and Chinese-American employees and at its NYC Chinatown Branches because they are Chinese and unjustly and insincerely linked to the Chinese money brokers that used TD Bank, N.A. to launder millions of dollars gained from criminal activity,” according to the complaint filed Wednesday.
The plaintiffs are suing as a class action of Chinese and Chinese-American TD branch employees who were investigated and fired. They say they were terminated for “unspecified violations” of TD’s code of ethics.
TD declined a request for comment as the case is pending litigation.
In late 2022, TD became aware that it faced an uncertain timeline to acquire approvals from U.S. regulators to purchase Tennessee-based First Horizon Corp. Around that time, TD began closing the accounts of many Chinese and Chinese-American customers without explanation, according to the complaint.
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More than 22 employees were fired or faced adverse employment actions, and all but one of the terminated staff were Chinese or Chinese-American, according to the filings.
One of the criminals that laundered money through TD was Da Ying Sze, known as David, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, much of it through the bank’s branches in New York over a three-year period. He repeatedly deposited large amounts of cash into accounts opened by other people, asking bank employees to issue cheques and send wires.
TD presented its turnaround strategy in September aimed at reviving its share price, streamlining its businesses and renewing its culture. The bank has also hired hundreds of new anti-money-laundering and compliance employees as part of its remediation efforts.