A former TD Bank employee has admitted to accepting bribes and using his position at the bank to launder more than $4.8 million to Colombia, federal prosecutors announced.
Gerardo Aquino, 40, of Hollywood, Florida, pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging him with conspiring to launder monetary instruments and receipt of bribes by a bank employee, the Justice Department said.
According to court filings, Aquino exploited his job at TD Bank from April 2022 to November 2023 to help move illicit funds overseas. He opened fraudulent accounts, issued hundreds of debit cards to co-conspirators, and unblocked debit cards that TD Bank had restricted because of potential fraud, prosecutors said. The accounts and cards were then used to funnel approximately $4.8 million out of the United States.
Prosecutors said Aquino opened 86 individual customer accounts using the same exact commercial address in Miami. Those accounts alone were used to launder over $3 million in illicit funds to Colombia. In exchange, Aquino received more than $8,000 in bribes, paid in cash and through a peer-to-peer digital payment network, according to court filings.
“The Criminal Division is at the vanguard of protecting the security of the U.S. financial system, including against bank insiders,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Gerardo Aquino abused his position of trust at TD Bank and enriched himself in the process. Bank insiders who facilitate money laundering and illegal activity for criminal organizations play a critical role for that organization and abuse our financial system. When that happens, these insiders will be investigated and prosecuted.”
U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer for the District of New Jersey said Aquino enabled crime instead of preventing it.
“From inside TD Bank, Aquino facilitated the laundering of millions of dollars in exchange for bribes,” Frazer said. “By enabling crime instead of preventing it, Aquino provided a soft entry point into our banking system for malevolent actors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to hold financial institutions and their employees accountable when they break the law and undermine the integrity of our financial system.”
DEA Associate Chief of Operations Greg Millard said corrupt financial insiders are just as important to criminal networks as those who commit violent crimes.
“This guilty plea demonstrates that corrupt financial insiders are just as critical to criminal networks as those who move drugs or incite violence,” Millard said. “By exploiting his position at a financial institution, accepting bribes, and helping funnel millions of dollars to Colombia, Gerardo Aquino enabled the movement of illicit proceeds and undermined the integrity of the U.S. financial system. DEA and our partners will continue to identify, investigate, and hold accountable the facilitators who help transnational criminal organizations profit from their crimes.”
IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan said the agency will continue to follow the money.
“Financial institutions and their employees serve as an important line of defense in protecting the integrity of our financial system,” Piovesan said. “When someone abuses that position of trust to facilitate money laundering and move millions of dollars in illicit proceeds, they undermine the very system they are entrusted to protect. IRS Criminal Investigation and our law enforcement partners will continue to follow the money, expose those who enable criminal activity, and hold financial facilitators accountable.”
FDIC Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Charge Patricia Tarasca said the plea holds Aquino accountable.
“The guilty plea in this case holds Mr. Aquino accountable for accepted bribes and abusing his trusted position at TD Bank to facilitate the laundering of millions of dollars out of the United States to Colombia,” Tarasca said. “The FDIC OIG is pleased to join our law enforcement partners in announcing today’s guilty plea, and we remain committed to investigating financial crimes that threaten to undermine the safety and soundness of our Nation’s financial system, including those crimes involving bank insiders.”
The money laundering conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The charge of receipt of bribes by a bank employee carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
Aquino’s sentencing is set for March 23, 2027. A federal judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Aquino’s case was part of a much larger reckoning for TD Bank. According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2024, TD Bank agreed to pay about $3 billion in penalties and accept limits on its growth in the U.S. as part of a settlement with regulators and prosecutors over charges. The bank failed to properly monitor money laundering by drug cartels, the Journal reported. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was expected to impose an asset cap barring the bank’s retail business from growing above a certain level.
TD’s U.S. entity intended to plead guilty to criminal charges to resolve a Justice Department investigation. Both the Justice Department and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network planned to install independent monitors; the FinCEN monitor was expected to remain in place for four years. The settlement would include the Justice Department, FinCEN, the OCC, and the Federal Reserve. The Justice Department would receive the largest slice of penalties, about $1.8 billion, with FinCEN getting $1.3 billion.
Federal authorities opened an investigation into TD’s internal controls after agents discovered a Chinese criminal operation had laundered millions of dollars in fentanyl sales through TD branches in New York and New Jersey and bribed bank employees. In May 2023, concerns over the probe and TD’s ability to detect and prevent money laundering scuttled the bank’s planned $13.4 billion acquisition of Tennessee’s First Horizon.
TD said it was working to address its anti-money-laundering deficiencies. Chief Executive Bharat Masrani called the problems serious and said meeting the bank’s obligations was of paramount importance. He later announced he would step down. In August, TD said it had set aside another $2.6 billion in its third quarter to account for potential settlement costs. TD shares were down about 2% that year.
The sweeping rebuke mirrored the restrictions placed on Wells Fargo since 2018 after bankers were found opening fake accounts for clients. For TD, Canada’s second-biggest bank, the settlement followed an ugly chapter that had weighed on its stock price and had stemmed its U.S. ambitions.
About the Author
