When you think of a bank, you imagine a place of trust and responsibility. But for nearly a decade, TD Bank, the U.S. branch of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank, played a very different role. This major bank didn’t just fail to prevent crime—it actively became a gateway for some of the worst criminal activities imaginable, including human trafficking, drug dealing, and Ponzi schemes.

The scale of lawbreaking was massive. Between 2014 and 2023, TD Bank allowed over half a billion dollars to...