MONEY TALKS

Hong Kong’s Leader Reveals She Has No Bank Account, Sits on ‘Piles of Cash’

The government pays Carrie Lam’s salary in cash due to U.S. sanctions, the highest paid world leader revealed on television.

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam revealed on a local English television channel on Friday that she sits on “piles of cash” due to U.S. sanctions that have prevented her from having a bank account. “I have piles of cash at home, the government is paying me cash for my salary because I don't have a bank account,” she said. The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Lam in response to the Chinese government’s crackdown on free speech and democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. She said that it was “very honorable” to be “unjustifiably sanctioned” by the U.S. government. Lam reportedly has one of the highest paid salaries of any world leader, earning an annual HK$5.2 million ($671,000). Lam said she uses “cash every day for all the things.”