Ex-TD Bank employee pleads guilty to laundering $4.8M to Colombia

Gerardo Aquino, 40, of Hollywood, Florida, has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and laundering more than $4.8 million to Colombia while employed by TD Bank, the Justice Department announced.

According to court filings, Aquino exploited his position as a bank employee to help launder illicit funds from April 2022 to November 2023. He opened fraudulent accounts, issued hundreds of debit cards to co-conspirators and unblocked cards that TD Bank had restricted over potential fraud.

The accounts and cards were then used to funnel approximately $4.8 million out of the United States, the filings state. Aquino opened 86 individual customer accounts using the same commercial address in Miami, and those accounts alone were used to launder more than $3 million in illicit funds to Colombia. In exchange, he received more than $8,000 in bribes, paid in cash and through a peer-to-peer digital payment network.

Aquino pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging him with conspiring to launder monetary instruments and receipt of bribes by a bank employee. Money laundering conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and receipt of bribes by a bank employee carries a maximum of 30 years. Sentencing is set for March 23, 2027. A federal judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

“Gerardo Aquino abused his position of trust at TD Bank and enriched himself in the process,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Bank insiders who facilitate money laundering and illegal activity for criminal organizations play a critical role for that organization and abuse our financial system. When that happens, these insiders will be investigated and prosecuted.”

U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer for the District of New Jersey said Aquino “provided a soft entry point into our banking system for malevolent actors.”

Greg Millard, associate chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the plea shows “corrupt financial insiders are just as critical to criminal networks as those who move drugs or incite violence.”

Jenifer L. Piovesan, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Newark Field Office, said investigators “will continue to follow the money, expose those who enable criminal activity, and hold financial facilitators accountable.”

Patricia Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FDIC Office of Inspector General’s New York Region, said the office remains “committed to investigating financial crimes that threaten to undermine the safety and soundness of our Nation’s financial system, including those crimes involving bank insiders.”

The DEA, IRS Criminal Investigation and FDIC-OIG are investigating the case, and the Justice Department thanked the Morristown Police Department for its assistance. Trial Attorneys D. Zachary Adams and Chelsea Rooney of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marko Pesce for the District of New Jersey are prosecuting the case.