Chinese activist Ai Weiwei says Credit Suisse is closing its foundation’s bank account

September 7 (Reuters) – Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei said Credit Suisse told him it was closing its foundation’s bank account in Switzerland earlier this year citing its “criminal history” in China , although the activist has never been convicted of any crime.

One of China’s most prominent artists and political activists, Ai, who now lives in Portugal, wrote in an opinion piece for the Artnet website how the Swiss bank first told him it would close the account in the spring of ‘this year.

“Credit Suisse initially informed me that they had a new policy to terminate all bank accounts related to people with a criminal record,” Ai told Reuters in an emailed statement, adding that the foundation had been asked to move the funds before September.

The bank declined to comment.

Ai helped design the famous Bird’s Nest Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics before falling into the hands of the communist government, which detained him for 81 days in 2011. He said he has never been formally charged or convicted of any crime. .

Ai said Credit Suisse then called him on June 24 to tell him the bank would like to close the account, which belonged to a freedom of expression and arts foundation it started in 2016, “as soon as possible.” . He said executives referred to an interview he had done with a Swiss newspaper several days earlier, in which he criticized Swiss for voting in favor of stricter “anti-immigrant policies” as a reason for the closure.

Credit Suisse declined to comment on any of its complaints, saying it does not discuss “potential or existing customer relationships.”

Ai told Reuters that the account was in the process of being closed and that it could only be used in a very limited way, but that funds still needed to be withdrawn.

CHINA STRATEGY

Many of the major Western banks, including Credit Suisse, have made the winning business of China’s growing ranks for the ultra-rich a central part of their strategies. However, this has created geopolitical problems for several of them when they tried to stay in favor of Beijing.

Last year Reuters reported that global wealth managers, including Credit Suisse, were examining whether their clients in Hong Kong had ties to the city’s pro-democracy movement, in an attempt to prevent them from getting caught up in the focus of China’s new national security law.

Like other wealth managers, Credit Suisse has turned its sponsorship into arts as a point of sale with its expert clientele in collecting, acting as a patron of numerous museums in Switzerland and internationally, while building its own collection of more than 8,000 works of art focused especially on emerging artists.

Ai said he had previously faced similar actions from one bank in Germany and another in Hong Kong, but in neither case had any explanation been given.

“You know, these banks are very arrogant,” Ai said, adding that he did not believe Credit Suisse would reverse its decision. “Even if they reverse that decision, I’m not willing to partner with a bank that has such a strange relationship with China.”

Report by Rachel Armstrong, Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Oliver Hirt; additional reports from Sumeet Chatterjee; Edited by Alex Richardson

Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.