A former New York-based employee of TD Bank N.A, Wilfredo Aquino, has pleaded guilty to facilitating a money laundering network’s movement of hundreds of millions of dollars through TD Bank accounts.
Aquino, 47, of New York, pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with conspiring to launder monetary instruments. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12.
According to court filings, beginning in 2019 and continuing until February 2021, Aquino, then a TD Bank assistant store manager, leveraged his position to facilitate the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars through TD Bank accounts by a money laundering network.
During that time, the leader of the network, Da Ying Sze, also known as David, and his co-conspirators (collectively known as David’s Network) moved approximately $474 million through TD Bank accounts by depositing cash at TD Bank stores in New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere.
In February 2022, David pleaded guilty to coordinating a $653 million money laundering conspiracy, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and bribing bank employees in connection with financial transactions.
While David’s Network used a number of TD Bank stores to conduct its money laundering activity, it laundered the most money through Aquino’s Midtown Manhattan store. Nobody processed more transactions for David’s Network at the Midtown Manhattan store than Aquino.
During the course of David’s money laundering scheme, Aquino processed approximately 1,680 official bank checks for David’s Network, totalling more than $92 million.
Nearly all of these bank checks were funded with a corresponding cash deposit exceeding $10,000, which triggered TD Bank’s legal requirement to file a currency transaction report (CTR).
Although Aquino knew that David was conducting these cash deposits, Aquino never identified David as the “conductor” on the CTR.
Aquino also knew that TD Bank had closed other accounts linked to David for suspicious activity; one colleague even warned Aquino that David’s activity “looks like money laundering.”
In February 2021, Aquino facilitated three of David’s money laundering transactions, totalling almost $2 million in cash, in a third party’s account. He failed to report David as the transaction’s conductor, thereby concealing David’s role in the money laundering scheme.
Aquino accepted numerous retail gift cards from David, totalling over $11,000, in return for his facilitation of this scheme, including for the three transactions in February 2021.
The charge of money laundering conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000 or twice the amount involved in the offence, whichever is greater.
The defendant leveraged his position at TD Bank and facilitated the criminal activity of a money laundering network that moved hundreds of millions of dollars through the bank’s accounts, according to Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“During the illicit scheme, the defendant evaded reporting requirements to hide the identity of the leader of the money laundering network. The Criminal Division is fully committed to rooting out money-laundering networks and their facilitators that exploit the security and stability of our country’s banking system,” said Duva.
“Aquino helped criminals launder money from inside TD Bank,” said Senior Counsel Philip Lamparello for the Criminal and Special Prosecutions Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. “Bank employees are the first line of defence against money laundering, fraud, and other financial crimes. When bank employees ignore their obligations and instead use their positions to commit crimes and line their own pockets, we will not hesitate to hold them accountable.”
Aquino’s position at TD Bank required him to report suspicious customer activity and adhere to robust anti-money laundering regulations,” noted Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Newark Field Office.
“Instead, he turned a blind eye to complying with the law and prioritised enriching himself. IRS-CI will continue working with our law enforcement partners to investigate individuals taking advantage of our financial system through criminal activity,” Piovesan added.
