Sex workers across the industry are reporting that the bank Wells Fargo has sent them notices terminating their accounts effective immediately, in what they see as an extension of the crackdown measures banks and other large institutions have been implementing over the past few years.
In the letters, which are dated August 25 and copies of which were provided to Rolling Stone, Wells Fargo offers zero explanation for the decision to terminate the relationship with these customers. The letter says that the bank “performs ongoing reviews of its account relationships in connection with the Bank’s responsibilities to manage risks in its banking operations,” and that the recipient’s accounts will be closed “as a result of this review.” Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alana Evans, the president of the Adult Performance Artists’ Guild (APAG), says that she has been a client with Wells Fargo in good standing for nearly 30 years, and has had no issues with the bank. In a video posted on Twitter Sept. 2, she tearfully read a portion of the letter out loud. “I don’t bounce checks, I’ve never done anything bad with my bank account, I don’t have fraud alerts or do chargebacks,” she said in the video. “A bank that I’ve done business with for 30 years decided that I’m not worthy of a relationship with them.” She went on to recount the impact that the decision would have on her life: “How am I supposed to pay my bills? How am I supposed to get paid?”
Spike Irons and Sofie Marie, who run YummyGirl Studios, a porn production company based out of Las Vegas, also received a letter from Wells Fargo, also dated Aug. 25, terminating their relationship with the bank effective Oct. 13. They had just cashed a check after Marie modeled for Hustler, and primarily use the account to pay out independent contractors, such as actors and production staffers. They have since applied to two other banks and been rejected, and are unsure how they will pay out employees when their account closes next month.
“We’re a tax-paying business that has been operating consistently since 2016,” says Irons. “Tell me how we are high-risk. Wouldn’t they have dumped us years ago?”
Adult content creator Leia Way also received the notice from Wells Fargo, even though she says she had been a member in good standing for six years and was primarily using the account to process wire transfer payments from an affiliate marketing program on a cam site. “In this line of work, the feeling of being discriminated never really goes away,” she says. “With that feeling, I am always expecting the other shoe to drop.” She is now in the process of trying to find another bank. “To have a business terminate your relationship when you’ve done nothing wrong or illegal, it sucks,” she says.
It appears that the Wells Fargo decision has also affected people who do not work in the adult industry anymore. Former adult performer Raylene has been out of the industry for a decade, and says she’s had her Wells Fargo account for 22 years. She, too, received the same notice from Wells Fargo on Monday, despite the only adult industry-related payment on her account being residuals from a lifetime contract with Streammate, a site she says she has not used in about 12 years.
“It’s kind of messed up,” she says. “If I feel unsafe in a financial institution, what’s next? Did they check my background? Why would one or two deposits a year flag my account? I would feel better if someone would give me a straight answer.” The fact that she has been out of the industry for so long, she says, makes her even more disquieted about Wells Fargo’s decision. “You feel powerless over the external forces, over corporate and religious America, trying to exclude certain groups from living their lives in a free way,” she says.
This is not the first time that banks have cracked down on sex workers operating in legal, regulated industries. In 2014, JP Morgan Chase closed down many adult performers’ accounts without providing any explanation, including Teagan Presley and Keiran Lee, both of whom spoke out about the decision on social media. At the time, Presley was not even in the industry, and was primarily using her account to process sales from her Fleshlight and pay for her children’s gymnastic lessons.
Some speculated that the crackdowns were a reuslt of Operation Chokepoint, an Obama administration-led initiative to police payment processor fraud, though a 2015 internal probe found “no evidence” of this. Many banks have argued that the adult industry is considered higher risk due to the frequency of chargebacks, or customers demanding refunds after making purchases, though all of the producers and performers Rolling Stone spoke with denied that chargebacks were an issue on their accounts (or that they used their Wells Fargo accounts to process customer payments at all).
In recent months, however, there has undoubtedly been pressure from right-wing organizations like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly Morality In Media) and Exodus Cry on banks and credit card companies to sever relationships with the adult industry. Last month, Visa and Mastercard anounced it would be suspending payments for ad purchases on websites like Pornhub following a lawsuit by a woman accusing the payment processors of facilitating the hosting of child pornography on the site. The owner of Pornhub, MindGeek, has denied knowingly hosting such content, attributing such claims to “groups whose stated agenda is to shut down the adult entertainment industry.” Pornhub’s Instagram account was also shut down on Saturday, a move that NCOSE, in a statement, took credit for.
Some performers Rolling Stone spoke with believe there is a direct link between such efforts on the part of the religious right to shut down such platforms, and banks’ decisions to crack down on the livelihoods of independent producers and performers. “I feel no shame about my history,” says Raylene. “[But] it’s almost like they” — meaning, corporate and conservatives forces in America — “don’t want us to change or move on.” The experience has steeled her resolve to speak out against what she views as discriminatory actions taken by the banks against those in her former industry: “I want to make it my mission to fight. Because where are they going to draw the line?”