TD Bank Sued by Chinese Employees in US Claiming Illegal Firing
Toronto-Dominion Bank has been sued by a group of former employees who claim they were improperly fired from their jobs following revelations of widespread criminal money laundering through the bank’s branches.
Five Chinese and Chinese-American former employees have sued Toronto-Dominion, claiming they were ousted from its New York City branches as part of the bank’s anti-money laundering efforts. They said at least 22 people were fired from four Chinatown branches in the city’s Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens boroughs.
The plaintiffs allege they were hired to connect with Toronto-Dominion customers of Chinese descent and were then subjected to unlawful termination and withdrawals from their bank accounts based on their ethnicity. They are seeking unspecified damages.
According to the complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the former employees were punished “for crimes committed by other Chinese individuals – crimes in which they were not involved by individuals they did not know.”
The five plaintiffs are seeking to sue as a nationwide class of U.S. Chinese and Chinese-American Toronto-Dominion branch employees who have been investigated and fired since 2022 for “unspecified violations” of the company’s code of conduct and ethics.
Toronto-Dominion declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
In October last year, Toronto-Dominion pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and reached a $3.1 billion settlement with U.S. authorities. The settlement was the result of years of investigations into the bank’s failure to catch and stop numerous criminal networks from using its branches to launder money linked to drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
The firm, Canada’s second-largest bank, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on improvements to its anti-money laundering controls and hired dozens of experts to improve its programs.
A network operating out of a clothing warehouse in Queens ultimately laundered $474 million through Toronto-Dominion branches alone, according to court documents. The leader of this gang, Da Ying Sze, who later pleaded guilty, paid bribes to Toronto-Dominion tellers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to deposit tons of cash to ensure the operation ran smoothly, and then quickly used the money to purchase bank checks.
The scandal roiled Toronto-Dominion’s senior management and corporate board; Long-serving Chief Executive Officer Bharat Masrani resigned early and six directors, including the chairman, left the board this year.
Toronto-Dominion has 10 million retail customers in the U.S. and approximately 1,100 branches concentrated on the East Coast. As a result of the agreement, the United States will face a cap on retail banking assets.
The case is Wong v. TD Bank Group, 25-cv-09634, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
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