Bankers Dodging Blame Is a Neverending Story: Paul J. Davies

There’s one lesson for any bank executive looking at the record money laundering penalties handed to Toronto-Dominion Bank last week: Whatever happens in their business, they’re never going to jail.

The Canadian bank was hit with fines totaling $3.1 billion and pled guilty as an institution for enabling egregious and long-lasting money laundering, much of it linked to the criminal trade in Fentanyl, the drug ravaging parts of the US.

Its shareholders are paying the price; its executives and management, not so much. The fines have cut its expected net income in 2024 by about one-third, based on forecasts collected by Bloomberg. The ...