A 40-year-old former TD Bank employee from Hollywood, Florida, pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting bribes and laundering more than $4.8 million to Colombia through a scheme that exploited his access to the bank's own fraud-prevention systems. Gerardo Aquino pleaded guilty to a two-count criminal information on October 6.
According to the Justice News, Aquino faces sentencing on March 23, 2027. The charges carry statutory maximum penalties of up to 20 years in prison for money laundering conspiracy and up to 30 years for bank bribery. Those figures represent ceilings under federal law rather than predictions of what sentence he will actually receive.
How the Scheme Moved Millions to Colombia
The operation ran from April 2022 through November 2023, during which Aquino used his position to open 86 fraudulent customer accounts, all registered to a single commercial address in Miami, according to Traders Union. Those accounts alone facilitated the transfer of more than $3 million to Colombia, the outlet reported.
To keep the money flowing, Aquino issued hundreds of debit cards to co-conspirators and unblocked cards TD Bank had restricted because of potential fraud, per Banking Dive's reporting. In effect, Aquino helped co-conspirators bypass the bank's restrictions.
Aquino's payoff for the scheme was modest compared with the sums involved. He accepted more than $8,000 in bribes delivered through cash and peer-to-peer digital payment networks, including payments for providing debit cards to co-conspirators, the same report notes.
Another TD Bank Employee Case
Banking Dive separately reported that Leonardo Ayala accepted more than $6,000 in bribes and issued over 150 debit cards used for ATM withdrawals in Colombia.
These individual breaches unfolded against a far larger corporate reckoning. In October 2024, TD Bank pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to anti-money-laundering program failures and agreed to pay more than $3 billion in combined penalties, according to GARP.
TD Bank's Compliance Failures
Federal regulatory findings from late 2024 described failures in TD Bank's anti-money-laundering controls.
Hoodline previously covered TD Bank's branch closures tied to the fallout from the $3 billion settlement. It remains unclear whether additional co-conspirators in Colombia or Miami face pending indictments, and what specific compliance remedies TD Bank has put in place to stop retail employees from overriding fraud freezes, according to Banking Dive.
