Our second runner-up proves the adage that the answer to any question is “Money”. 

We’re talking about TD Bank turning itself into what regulators called a “laundromat” for a drug dealer’s cash. Heads rolled!

Not unlike the fake account scandal that got Wells Fargo in trouble (and on our list of Bad Business Award winners) in 2020, TD Bank took an even more straightforward approach by working with criminal enterprises to launder their money. Yikes!

As per the NY Times, “TD Bank agreed to pay about $3 billion in fines to U.S. authorities and pleaded guilty to money-laundering-related charges in a case brought by federal prosecutors, who said the Canadian bank made it ‘convenient’ for criminals to open accounts, transfer funds and even deposit seven-figure sums of cash at its branches.”

In a passage that could have come from fiction “a Queens, N.Y. man provided bank workers with more than $57,000 in gift cards in return for permitting the laundering of more than $470 million. Such behavior was somewhat of an open secret inside the bank. ‘How is that not money laundering?’ one branch employee asked another after a customer was permitted to buy more than $1 million in bank checks with cash. ‘Oh, it 100 percent is,’ the second employee responded.”

Reuters reported that Chief Global Anti-Money Laundering Officer Herbert Mazariegos stepped down as did CEO Bharat. But how does a bank rebuild trust in its branches?

TD Bank’s new CEO Raymond Chun said hr’ll improve the bank’s anti-money laundering program and build the risk and control environment the bank needed by removing barriers and simplifying operations.  Those on the outside have their fingers crossed.

“I’m hoping that he will assemble good talent south of the border. He can do no wrong compared to the management group that was in there before. So we’re optimistic,” said Chris King, vice president at Toronto-based Morgan Meighen & Associates told theMint.