Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has rebuked the U.S. Justice Department over a $3bn money-laundering settlement with Toronto-based TD Bank that did not include the prosecution of bank executives. In a letter sent last week to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Warren criticized DOJ for not charging the bank with money laundering and for shifting some legal liability to its U.S. holding company, which she said allowed it to evade the full scope of penalties. “These charging decisions represent absurd legal gymnastics by DOJ that ultimately have allowed the bank and its top executives to avoid full responsibility for their actions. This is not an acceptable outcome,” Warren wrote. TD Bank is to pay around $3bn in penalties, and accept limits on its growth in the U.S., as part of the settlement with regulators and prosecutors over charges it failed to properly monitor money laundering by drug cartels. The lender’s failures enabled a Chinese money-laundering syndicate in New York and other criminals to funnel more than $670m in drug funds through the bank, federal prosecutors said.
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