Hong Kong ex-lawmaker Ted Hui says his bank accounts have been frozen

Former Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said he and his family no longer have access to their bank accounts in the city after he fled to self-imposed exile in the U.K., the South China Morning Post reported.

Five accounts belonging to Hui, his wife and parents have been inaccessible since Saturday, he said in an interview with the newspaper. Police visited HSBC Holdings Plc, Hang Seng Bank and Bank of China with search warrants and told the lenders to suspend some banking services for Hui and his family, the Post said in a separate report.

Voice and email messages to HSBC and Hang Seng in Hong Kong went unanswered on Sunday, while BOC declined to immediately comment.

Hui said he discovered the problem when he logged into his online bank accounts, which weren’t functioning, the Post reported. The accounts contain his family’s “life savings,” Hui said in the interview.

When he contacted the banks, Hui was told that they could provide no further information, the report quoted him as saying.

Hui announced last week that he was going into exile in the U.K. after fleeing to Denmark earlier.

He was one of a group of people arrested last month in connection with a protest in the legislative chamber in May. Hui quit in November as part of a mass resignation by opposition legislators over the government’s ouster of four of their members.

The U.S., which has already sanctioned Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and several other officials responsible for the city, is facing a mid-December deadline to identify banks for penalties under a law passed earlier this year to support the local democracy movement.

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo last week accused Hong Kong of using the courts to engage in “political persecution.”