A Hong Kong democracy activist said on Friday that online payments firm Stripe declined his business for "risk" reasons after he tried to crowdfund legal bills accrued from suing the police.

Leung Wing-lai and two other activists had raised more than HK$141,000 ($18,000) on the crowdfunding platform GoGetFunding before Stripe stopped receiving credit card payments on their behalf, Leung wrote on Facebook.

The men were raising the funds after a failed attempt to sue the Hong Kong police for battery left them with HK$600,000 in legal bills.

"The reason was that Stripe could only service low-risk vendors, and after assessment it believed that we exceeded what they could support," Leung said.

The development comes after one of Hong Kong's last remaining pro-democracy parties, the League of Social Democrats (LSD), said on Wednesday their account at online payment giant PayPal was terminated due to "excessive risks".

The two co-organisers of Leung's fundraising project, Jaco Chow and Wong Weng-chi, were former members of LSD.

GoGetFunding confirmed to AFP that Stripe deemed Leung's campaign "too high-risk", but said their users are permitted to raise funds for legal costs.

"We are an impartial site that allows those facing legal costs the opportunity to raise funds... to ensure they are able to employ the best legal defense they can afford -- as is their absolute right," GoGetFunding founder Sandip Sekhon said.

AFP has contacted Stripe for comment.

Stripe is jointly headquartered in the United States and Ireland while GoGetFunding is registered in Britain.

Online crowdfunding was popular among Hong Kong's democracy supporters as prosecutions against them mounted and others fled overseas.

But many projects were forced to shut down following government warnings and arrests.

Hong Kong authorities have levelled money laundering charges against some crowdfunding projects and hinted at further regulation to prevent money from being used to endanger "national security".

Leung and Chow accused police of beating them after they were arrested in a 2014 protest opposing a land development project in northern Hong Kong.

In his original fundraising post, Leung said he was seeking HK$600,000 after a judge in 2020 ruled against the activists and ordered them to pay the government's legal costs.

Leung earlier wrote that he had concerns about crowdfunding but had no choice as the activists might otherwise be declared bankrupt.

The 180 backers who paid through credit card will receive a refund from Stripe, Leung said on Friday.

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