CANADA'S TD BANK ACCUSED OF FACILITATING MAJOR CARIBBEAN FINANCIAL CRIME SCHEMES

                                                         

Toronto Dominion Bank, one of Canada's largest financial institutions, has been accused, by the victims of two of the Caribbean's most notorious financial crime scandals, of allowing major fraudsters to use the bank to commit massive fraud and money laundering offenses. The bank has also been implicated in assisting Ponzi schemers to steal millions of dollars from investors in Florida.

First, a suit reportedly filed against TD Bank claims that it, by allowing billions of dollars to come unexamined into a correspondent account, the Bank effectively facilitated the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R Allen Stanford, the convicted owner of Stanford International Bank, which operated in Antigua. it is alleged that the Bank, which earned lucrative fees for providing its services to Stanford, even after his operation came under suspicion and investigation, turned a blind eye to his dodgy operation. Stanford is serving a 110-year sentence in the United States, but no bank officer was ever indicted for the Bank's role in the fraud.

Allen Stanford

Second, the $450m Cayman Gang of Four scandal, where a group of Cayman Islands financial professionals fleeced elderly investors of their life savings, TD Bank was the financial institution of choice for Ryan Bateman, a Gang member, and questions have been asked, by investigators, why the bank funneled large amounts through Bateman's accounts, without asking questions. Additionally, TD Bank corporate clients in Canada had a role in the unauthorized transfer of client funds to the fraudsters.

Cayman Gang of Four; Bateman, Lamb, Buntain

Over in Florida, TD Bank paid out many millions to settle claims against it, for being the primary financial institution for the billion dollar attorney/Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's fraudulent operation, where investors were sold non-existent court settlements, ostensibly at a deep discount, to receive the full amounts later. A senior TD Bank executive was recently sentenced to two years in Federal Prison, for his role in that Ponzi scheme, on of the largest in the history of the State of Florida. Additionally, the bank had a multi-million dollar payout in a Dutch Ponzi scheme.

Scott Rothstein

Whether there are other, as yet unreported, Caribbean frauds and Ponzi schemes, where TD Bank was the principal financial institution handling the funds, is not known, but a pattern of what the victims claim is egregious misconduct, is beginning to emerge, where the attractive revenue received by the bank seems to have trumped diligent search and inquiry, on behalf of the bank's compliance department. It has cost TD Bank dearly, both in money, and reputation damage, and the total costs do not appear to be over yet.