Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid sex abuse suits

The national organization Boy Scouts of America (BSA) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday in reaction to a wave of lawsuits arising from years of sexual abuse allegations by former scouts.

Having already paid out more than $150 million since 2017, the Irving, Texas-based group called bankruptcy the “only viable option” going forward. The organization currently faces about 275 abuse lawsuits and sees the possibility of hundreds more lawsuits in the future.

The likely outcome is that the Delaware court handling the bankruptcy will likely freeze any current lawsuits against the BSA and set a deadline for any future claims.

In an open letter to victims, Jim Turley, the national chair of the organization, wrote that the Boy Scouts had entered into “voluntary financial restructuring” to make sure it is able to “equitably compensate all victims of past abuse in our programs, through a proposed Victim’s Compensation Trust. I encourage you, and all victims to come forward and file claims so you can receive compensation from this Trust.”

The BSA, which turned 110 years old this month, has nearly 100,000 local groups across the US with more than 2 million young members, but that number is only half of what it was at its peak in 1973.

Since its founding, more than 130 million Americans have participated in the group, including such prominent figures as Steven Spielberg, Neil Armstrong, Sam Walton, Rex Tillerson and US presidents John Kennedy and Gerald Ford, as well as current presidential contender Michael Bloomberg, who was an Eagle Scout, the highest rank possible, during his youth.

In 2012, an Oregon court made public secret BSA “perversion files” that contained the names of nearly 8,000 scout leaders going back seven decades who allegedly victimized more than 12,000 boys under their care.

The New York Times reported that last year a group called Abused in Scouting began advertising around the US to ask people who were abused as scouts to come forward. The group found nearly 2,000 people ranging in age from 8 to 93 and including at last one from each of the 50 states.

“It provides pedophiles with access to boys,” former scout Robbie Pierce, 39, told the Times. “That has to stop. I don’t know if that means getting rid of the Boy Scouts, or some new oversight.”

In recent years, other prominent US organizations including Roman Catholic dioceses and USA Gymnastics have sought bankruptcy protection after being similarly beset by allegations of sexual abuse and undue secrecy.

“The Catholic bankruptcies are limited in geographic scope. Here there will be claimants from all 50 states and the American territories,” Michael Pfau, an attorney whose firm represents 300 alleged BSA victims, told cnn.com. “We can talk about files and numbers, but in reality, if you step back and realize the scope of the human carnage, it’s stunning.”