PROVIDENCE – A former TD Bank employee based in New York has been indicted in N.Y. Supreme Court on a charge that she distributed personal identifying information of TD Bank customers on Telegram while working in the anti-money laundering department at the bank.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. announced on Nov. 7 the indictment of Daria Sewell, with one count of second-degree unlawful possession of personal identification information, a felony.
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“This defendant allegedly abused her access while working in TD Bank’s anti-money laundering department to steal from the bank’s own customers. Telegram can be a hotbed for criminal activity, and we have uncovered everything from fraud to the sale of illegal firearms and the financing of terrorism. We will continue to leverage the expertise within our Office to root out any conduct on Telegram that poses a safety threat to Manhattanites and New Yorkers,” Bragg said.
According to court documents, Sewell worked at TD Bank from 2023 until May 2024. Through her position in the anti-money laundering department, she was able to access the personal identifying information of customers. A search warrant executed on her cellphone found that she had images of 255 checks with names of customers, along with the other personal information of nearly 70 other customers, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers.
Sewell then distributed the information on a Telegram channel she operated. She would instruct others to open bank accounts to deposit the checks and would split the profits.
The charge against Sewell stemmed from a larger investigation that charged five other individuals in a check fraud scheme that totaled nearly $500,000. The defendants in that scheme allegedly deposited stolen checks into their own personal bank accounts. During the investigation, the district attorney’s office found that the five defendants, among others, had communicated with Sewell about strategies for committing check fraud.
The investigation into the check fraud scheme and Sewell’s alleged activities remains ongoing.
In October, Toronto-based TD Bank, which has nine branches in Rhode Island and is the state’s eighth-largest bank in terms of deposits as of June, agreed to pay about $3 billion in a historic settlement with U.S. authorities who said that the financial institution’s lax practices allowed significant money laundering over multiple years.
TD Bank had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the largest bank in U.S. history to do so.
