Case adds pressure on TD as it rebuilds controls and trims US risk
Federal prosecutors’ latest TD Bank insider case shows how weak branch controls could feed global money flows at a lender already under a historic anti–money laundering settlement.
A former employee at TD’s Scotch Plains, N.J., branch, 34‑year‑old Oscar Marcel Nunez‑Flores, pleaded guilty in Newark federal court to conspiring to launder monetary instruments and receiving bribes as a bank employee.
According to court filings, he helped move more than $26 million from the United States to Colombia through TD accounts.
Prosecutors said he opened dozens of shell‑company accounts, often without any customer present, and those accounts were linked to more than 600 debit cards used in over 120,000 ATM withdrawals across Colombia.
“This case shows how complex money laundering schemes often depend on insiders who were willing to bend – or break – basic safeguards,” Philip Lamparello, senior counsel in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, said.
“Our office would continue to identify, investigate, and prosecute those who turn financial institutions into vehicles for large‑scale criminal activity.”
Assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva said Nunez “afforded his co‑conspirators unfettered access to TD Bank, while lining his own pockets in the process, and has been held to account, as would be others who abused the financial system,” adding that the Criminal Division remains “committed to protecting the security of our financial system.”
The money‑laundering conspiracy count carries a maximum 20‑year prison term, while receiving bribes as a bank employee carries up to 30 years and significant fines. Nunez is scheduled to be sentenced May 27.
Part of a broader pattern of insider abuses
The plea follows other TD insiders admitting to related conduct. Former New York‑based TD employee Wilfredo Aquino pleaded guilty in a separate case. According to the Justice Department and IRS Criminal Investigation, he processed about 1,680 official checks totaling more than $92 million for a laundering network and failed to properly report who was actually making the large cash deposits. He accepted retail gift cards worth more than $11,000 in return.
Another former TD worker, Jhonnatan Steven Rodriguez, admitted in 2025 that he took bribes of roughly $200 to $250 per account to open about 140 fraudulent accounts, sometimes forging signatures and communicating with account seekers via an alias on a messaging app.
TD’s AML overhaul and mortgage footprint
Those insider cases unfold as TD confronts sweeping US penalties over anti–money laundering lapses.
In October 2024 the bank became the largest institution operating in the United States to plead guilty to violating federal AML laws and agreed to pay more than $3 billion in fines and penalties, with regulators imposing a cap of about $434 billion on its US assets and restricting business growth.
TD’s response reshaped its US balance sheet. Early in 2025 the bank moved to sell roughly $9 billion of residential mortgages, largely jumbo loans, as part of efforts to stay within the asset cap and recalibrate risk.
Raymond Chun, who took over as chief executive after the settlement, acknowledged in April 2024 that the bank’s AML failures in its US operations were “unacceptable.”
“Our response has been decisive,” he said in that 2024 address, outlining a multiyear remediation program that included new processes, technology and personnel. “This is our most important priority. And my top priority as CEO.”
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