By CARLO BOFFA, EU Correspondent
A former TD Bank employee has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to facilitating a money laundering scheme that moved hundreds of millions of dollars through the bank’s accounts.
Wilfredo Aquino, a former assistant manager at TD Bank’s Midtown Manhattan branch, was sentenced to 46 months in prison. He helped a criminal network move $474 million (€414 million) through TD Bank accounts between 2019 and 2021.
Aquino, 47, forewent reporting requirements to hide the identity of the leader of the criminal ring, Da Ying Sze, also known as David, in exchange for retail gift cards worth $11,000. He processed 1,680 official bank cheques worth more than $92 million and repeatedly ignored warning signs, including colleagues providing evidence of criminal activity, prosecutors said.
Sze, the leader of the group, pleaded guilty in February 2022 to coordinating a $653 million money laundering scheme. He also admitted to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and to bribing bank employees in connection with financial transactions.
The arrest
Aquino was arrested on January 6 and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
“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,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said at the time of the arrest.
“Wilfredo Aquino’s position at TD Bank required him to report suspicious customer activity and adhere to robust anti-money laundering regulations,” said Jenifer L. Piovesan, Special Agent in Charge 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,” she added.
A second TD Bank employee, Edward Low, 31, was sentenced on the same day as Aquino. He received a two-year term for helping a ring that stole from the bank’s customers.
Low, also known as Mang Wah Low, accepted bribes to provide confidential account information to thieves who then stole from the accounts, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
In 2024, TD Bank pleaded guilty of criminal and civil services including conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act related to money laundering. It paid about $3 billion in fines and pledged to restructure its anti-money-laundering compliance program.
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