https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/12/11/former-td-bank-branch-worker-charged-in-ongoing-money-laundering-case/

The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested and charged another former Toronto-Dominion Bank employee with conspiracy to launder money, the latest in a string of charges tied to the lender’s massive compliance failures at its American retail business.

Leonardo Ayala, 24, who worked at a Toronto-Dominion branch in Doral, Florida, from February to November 2023, made a first appearance in a Miami court on Tuesday, the Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday.

Beginning last June, Ayala allegedly used his role as a “customer liaison” to facilitate money laundering by issuing dozens of debit cards for accounts that another employee had opened in the names of shell companies. The accounts were then allegedly used to launder millions of dollars in drug money through cash withdrawals at Colombian ATMs.

The charge against Ayala comes two months after the Justice Department, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced a resolution of sweeping probes into the Canadian bank’s failures to catch money laundering by drug cartels and other criminals. The bank agreed to pay almost $3.1 billion in fines and other penalties and faces a cap on its US retail-banking assets.

Documents filed by the Justice Department outlined three separate money-laundering conspiracies perpetrated through Toronto-Dominion bank branches.

Two former Toronto-Dominion employees were already publicly charged in the same conspiracy as Ayala, which was dubbed the “Colombian ATM typology.” One of the employees was from New Jersey and a second was from Florida, and prosecutors said in October they had identified a total of five bank insiders who helped the money-laundering ring, typically in return for a fee.

“Ayala repeatedly and corruptly issued numerous debit cards for TD Bank accounts originally opened in New Jersey, and had those debit cards mailed to an address in New Jersey, despite knowing that he was being directed to do so by individuals that were not the identified account holder,” prosecutors said in a criminal complaint filed in the case on Tuesday.

Ayala is alleged to have received payments totaling $2,900 from a Venezuelan national over a money-transfer app, according to the document.

“We identified the activity, reported it, and cooperated closely with authorities in their investigation. We continue to actively support their efforts,” Toronto-Dominion spokesperson Elizabeth Goldenshtein said in an email Wednesday.

Ayala, reached by phone, declined to comment.