Bank of America closed every account adult content creator Cherie DeVille had — personal and business alike — not due to anything she did wrong, but because of what she does for a living.
DeVille makes this claim and more in a recent Instagram video, which has gone viral, garnering over 50K likes and nearly 3000 comments— many tagging BofA online to answer for the decision.
“So Bank of America has just fired me as a customer,” she shared. “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.”
“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 added.
“Debanking” is About Discrimination
DeVille isn’t the only adult star who says she’s been punished for her profession. Just yesterday, performer Alix Lynx told Where Is The Buzz? that Chase bank closed her accounts without explanation as well, adding to a growing group of vocal stars pointing to the broader, well-documented pattern known as “debanking” — a practice that has quietly followed workers in legal but controversial industries for years.
“The most important thing about my story is it isn’t just my story—it’s our story,” DeVille tells Wet Ink Mag exclusively. “Debanking has become so common in the legal adult industry that it’s almost unusual to meet a performer it hasn’t happened to. Regardless of how anyone feels about our work, we’re operating legal businesses, paying taxes, employing people, and we deserve the same access to banking as every other law-abiding American.”
She’s already secured banking elsewhere, but she’s acutely aware that not everyone in her position has the resources or standing to bounce back so quickly. That disparity is part of why she decided to go public.
Bank of America’s Response
As reported by Yahoo, Bank of America disputes that DeVille’s profession had anything to do with the closures. In a statement, a spokesperson for the bank said the decision came down to account activity and compliance obligations, not the nature of her work.
“We are subject to federal regulations that require us to monitor account activity,” the spokesperson said. “In this case, the account was closed based on recent transactional activity and not because of any industry or profession.”
The bank did not elaborate on what activity actually triggered the closures.
It Can Happen to Anyone
DeVille maintains that her long tenure with the bank and her financial standing make her case worth paying attention to, not despite those factors, but because of them.
Her account closures — and the bank’s vague explanation — arrive as debanking continues to draw scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators, and workers in adult entertainment, cannabis, firearms, and other legal-but-stigmatized industries, who say they’ve faced similar treatment with little recourse and even less explanation.
“This is not an isolated incident,” DeVille tells Wet Ink. “Debanking has affected people throughout the legal adult industry for years. It is so common that it has become an accepted risk of working in a completely legal profession. We own legitimate businesses, pay taxes, employ people, and follow the law, yet we can still lose access to basic financial services simply because of our profession. Regardless of how anyone feels about our work, no one operating a legal business should lose access to banking services because of lawful employment.”
