Adult content creator Cherie DeVille says Bank of America recently closed all of her personal and business accounts, and she believes her profession, not any wrongdoing, was the reason.
“So Bank of America has just fired me as a customer,” DeVille said. “I know that is crazy because after literally years of banking with them, they closed all of my accounts, my personal accounts, uh, my business accounts, not because I committed fraud or did something illegal, not because I owe them money, but because I’m an adult content creator. That’s it. That’s the entire reason.”
DeVille said she runs a legal business and should not lose access to banking because of it.
“Whether you personally approve of my job or not is kind of beside the point because at the end of the day, I work in a completely legal business,” she said. “I pay my taxes, I have employees, I run a company, and I, like all legal businesses, deserve access to banking just like any other law-abiding American.”
For DeVille, however, her situation fits into what is known as the “practice of debanking,” an issue experienced by those working in controversial yet legal sectors for a long time now.
“It is called debanking, and it can obviously have a huge impact on your life and on your business,” she said. “This, unfortunately, is not at all a unique story in my line of work.”
DeVille said the issue has drawn attention at the highest levels of government, noting that President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the subject, though she said it was not aimed specifically at her industry.
“It has become such a big issue that President Trump signed an executive order to address it. Not for us, but for other people in vice industries,” she said. “And it simply says, if you’re operating a legal business and following the law, you shouldn’t lose access to banking just because somebody doesn’t like what you do, doesn’t agree with your line of legal work.”
DeVille said she found banking elsewhere but added that not all in her position have been so fortunate.
“Thankfully, I have already been able to find another bank, and that’s great for me, but not everybody has that privilege,” she said.
DeVille said she decided to share her story publicly to raise awareness of the practice.
“I wanted to come on here, um, and one, let you guys know that this happens, and this happens all of the time,” she said. “So let me know in the comments if this has happened to you or somebody you know, and if you think that banks should continue to get away with this, just ripping people’s accounts away for no reason other than they don’t like your job.”
DeVille said her banking history and credit made her case notable.
“If it can happen to me, someone with a long banking history, someone with very good credit, it can really easily happen to a lot of other people,” she said.
Bank of America has not publicly responded to DeVille’s claims.
