TD Bank to defend against Stanford Ponzi scheme liquidators seeking USD 5.5 billion in trial

According to a statement filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2019 cited by Reuters, the joint liquidators of Stanford International Bank (SIB) allege ‘negligence and knowing assistance’ by TD in allowing SIB to maintain correspondent accounts.

Correspondent banking is the business of providing services to offshore financial institutions. The joint liquidators are Grant Thornton in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. The trial is scheduled to last three months.

Robert Allen Stanford is serving a 110-year prison term after being convicted in 2012 of running a USD 7.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

However, a TD spokesman said ‘TD is not responsible for the fraud committed by Allen Stanford’. ‘Like everyone else, during the time that Stanford International Bank was a customer of TD, we had no knowledge of, and no reason to suspect, any fraudulent activity was taking place.’