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Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits

The Boy Scouts was first founded in 1910: Getty Images
The Boy Scouts was first founded in 1910: Getty Images

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has filed for bankruptcy amid thousands of new sexual abuse claims that have been made against the 110-year-old organisation.

Founded in 1910, the BSA is seeking to negotiate a compensation plan for abuse victims that could surpass a billion dollars, making it one of the largest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen.

The youth organisation, which made the bankruptcy filing in a Delaware court on Tuesday, is currently facing scores of lawsuits that accuse former scoutmasters and other leaders of molesting several thousand men in cases which stretch back more than 70 years.

Several of the lawsuits allege repeated fondling, exposure to pornography, and forced anal or oral sex.

Former scouts have come forward in recent months to identify hundreds of abusers not included in the existing lawsuits and previous settlements. Most of the new claims date to the 1960s, 70s and 80s; the organisation says there were only five known abuse victims in 2018.

Some lawyers have estimated that the number of claimants will eclipse those who came forward in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal.

The Boy Scouts have kept confidential files since the 1920s listing staff and volunteers implicated in sexual abuse, for the purpose of keeping predators away from youth. It emerged last April that the organisation believed 7,819 of its former leaders had sexually abused more than 12,250 children over the course of 72 years.

In filing for bankruptcy, the Scouts can now place all lawsuits on hold as it looks to sell off its property holdings, including campsites and hiking trails, to raise money for a victim compensation fund.

The bankruptcy petition listed the Boy Scouts’ assets at between £770m and £7.7bn, and its liabilities at £386m to £770m.

In an open letter to victims of the sex scandal, Jim Turley, the national chair of Boy Scouts of America, said: “I want you to know that we believe you, we believe in compensating you, and we have programs in place to pay for counseling for you and your family.”

Paul Mones, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing hundreds of victims, called the bankruptcy filing a “tragedy.”

“These young boys took an oath,” he said. “They pledged to be obedient, pledged to support the Scouts and pledged to be honorable. Many of them are extremely angry that that’s not what happened to them and the Boy Scouts of America did not step up in the way they should have.”

Scouting programmes are set to continue throughout the bankruptcy process and “for many years to come,” a BSA spokesman said.

However, calls are being made to overhaul, clear out and restructure the institution, a once revered pillar of American civic life which counts numerous politicians, business leaders and astronauts among its former scouts.

Tim Kosnoff, a lawyer who has worked on a number of Boy Scouts cases and helped create the Abused in Scouting victims’ group, told the New York Times that the BSA may need to liquidate and allow a new organisation with better controls to fill the void.

Bankruptcy has long been touted for the BSA, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, first hired the law firm Sidley Austin LLP for possible bankruptcy filing assistance in December 2018.

The report came at a time of rising financial uncertainty for the organisation, fuelled by declining membership and sex-abuse settlements.

The number of youths taking part in scouting has dropped below two million, down from more than four million at its peak in the 1970s.

The Boy Scouts was first founded in 1910 (Getty)
The Boy Scouts was first founded in 1910 (Getty)

Attempts were made to counter the decline by admitting girls, but its membership rolls took a hit on 1 January when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – for decades a major sponsor of Boy Scout units – cut ties and withdrew more than 400,000 scouts in favour of programmes of its own.

The financial outlook worsened last year after New York, Arizona, New Jersey and California passed laws altering the statute of limitations to make it easier for victims of historic abuse to file claims. Teams of lawyers across the US have been signing up clients by the hundreds to sue the Boy Scouts.

The BSA sex scandal carries many similarities to the abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic Church since 2002.

Like the Church, the Boy Scouts initially insisted it had never knowingly allowed a predator to work with youths. But reports from last year claimed that lawyers for abuse victims had identified multiple cases in which known offenders were allowed to return to leadership posts.

Both institutions have also boasted of major progress in combating abuse down the years, despite being accused of negligence and cover-ups.

The BSA has said that they “care deeply about all victims of child abuse and sincerely apologize to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting.”

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