silhouettes of boy scout leader and boy scouts.

Boy Scouts offer abuse victims $6,000 under bankruptcy plan

Boy Scouts of America is proposing to pay roughly $220 million toward a trust to compensate tens of thousands of former members who say they were abused during their time as scouts.

That amounts to about $6,000 per victim, a sum deemed “woefully inadequate” by a committee that represents survivors. Lawyers for the former scouts were plainly hoping for much more.

“It clearly should be in the range of six-figures to seven-figures,” said Paul Mones, a Portland lawyer who pioneered the sex abuse cases against the scouts. From the time I first got involved in these cases in 2004, it was clear to me that there was a level of arrogance that was incredible and it just wouldn’t go away no matter how many times they lost in court,” Mones added. “That is reflected in this bankruptcy plan.”

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Boy Scouts propose more than $300 million, Norman Rockwell paintings to settle sex abuse claims

The Boy Scouts of America, struggling to stay afloat while compensating tens of thousands of survivors of past sexual abuse, has pledged to provide a victims’ trust fund with at least $300 million from its local councils and proceeds from insurance policies and the sale of a collection of Norman Rockwell oil paintings.

The offer was detailed in a reorganization plan submitted by the Scouts, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year amid a wave of new sex abuse lawsuits after several states, including California, New York and New Jersey, expanded legal options for childhood victims to sue.

The 379-page plan, filed late Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, did not place a total on how much the 111-year-old youth organization is willing to pay to settle more than 85,000 sex abuse claims by former Scouts.

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Boy Scouts settlement offer slammed by survivors

Five years ago this month, Robb Lawson shared a secret he’d held for more than 30 years, a decision made in part to force accountability on those responsible for his anguish. A former Scoutmaster sexually abused him, he said. The Boy Scouts of America, facing nearly 90,000 such claims from former Boy Scouts across the country, has released a reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that includes a settlement offer averaging around $6,000 per plaintiff.

“It’s insulting,” said Lawson, who serves on the survivors’ Torts Claimant Committee, a nine-person committee appointed by the Department of Justice to represent the victims’ interest in the Boy Scouts’ Chapter 11 case. He has been immersed in negotiations with the BSA for the past year and said the TCC will oppose their plan in court.

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Boy Scouts of America plan to exit bankruptcy would pay abuse survivors an average of $6,000 each; survivors object

Boy Scouts of America is proposing to pay roughly $220 million toward a trust to compensate tens of thousands of former members who say they were abused during their time as scouts, according to a statement from the committee that represents survivors in the case.

Another $300 million may come from a voluntary contribution from local councils, the Boy Scouts said in court documents filed Monday, but the local organizations have given no formal commitment.

The number is a fraction of the $1 billion of the organization’s estimated value, and a sliver of the value of its subsidiaries, including local councils as well as various trusts and endowments, which USA TODAY estimates could exceed $3.7 billion.

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Man filing a sexual abuse claim against the boy scouts of america

Boy Scouts propose local councils pay $300M for sex abuse suits as part of bankruptcy filing

DOVER, Del. — The Boy Scouts of America submitted a bankruptcy reorganization plan Monday that envisions continued operations of its local troops and national adventure camps but leaves many unanswered questions about how it will resolve tens of thousands of sexual abuse claims by former Boy Scouts

The plan was filed Monday in Delaware bankruptcy court, even though the BSA remains in intense negotiations with insurers who face substantial exposure for sexual abuse claims, and with the official committee representing abuse victims.

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Asheville School hires NYC private investigation firm to handle alumni sex assault claims

With the number of reported campus sexual assault allegations now at four, Asheville School has retained a private investigation firm to handle calls from victims, but experts are leery of the school’s intentions.

Asheville School has directed at least one of its alleged victims – Vicki Jayne, a 1974 alumna – to contact New York City-based T&M Protection Resources, which has a mission, in part, to provide “cost-effective mitigation strategies and services,” according to its web site.

“Our relationship with T&M Protection Resources allows us to offer individuals who come forward with concerns the chance to speak with an investigator independent from the school,” said Leigh Ruhl, associate head of school for advancement.

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Nearly 90,000 sex abuse claims filed against Boy Scouts of America

Nearly 90,000 sexual abuse claims were submitted against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) ahead of a Monday deadline in the organization’s bankruptcy case.

Why it matters: The number of sex abuse cases is still likely underreported. Paul Mones, a lawyer who has been working on Boy Scouts cases for nearly two decades, told Axios he expects the total number of reported cases to be “closer” to 100,000. He’s calling for a congressional inquiry into the scandal.

The record number of new claims reveals the unknown scope of abuse.
The organization filed for bankruptcy in February after facing a slew of sex abuse reports. Claims had to be submitted by Monday at 5 p.m. ET.
Andrew Van Arsdale, one of the lead attorneys, called sex abuse an “unspoken norm” in BSA, per CNN. Claims include reports of forced sex, fondling and exposure to pornography.

For the record: Mones said more people came forward following the BSA’s bankruptcy filing.

“Most of the people coming forward were not molested by people that the Boy Scouts even acknowledged they knew about, which shows that the problem was much more deeply ingrained in the fabric of the scouts and the scouts for decades and decades,” he said.
Mones said the scale of abuse was much larger than the cases that emerged involving the Catholic Church in the U.S.

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Nearly 90,000 file sexual abuse claims against the Boy Scouts in unprecedented case

For decades, Gill Gayle thought his story of being sexually abused in Boy Scouts was unique.

Two Scout leaders abused him in the 1970s, Gayle said. The incidents were unrelated: The men lived in different cities in Alabama and didn’t know each other.

Gayle was in sixth grade when the first scoutmaster fondled him while on a camping trip. He repeated the abuse over months. After Gayle’s family moved during his eighth-grade year, he said he woke up at the second scoutmaster’s house to the man “violently raping” him.

Years later, after therapy helped him deal with depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts and attempts, Gayle, now 58, knows his story is all too common.

On Monday, Gayle’s claims were among the nearly 90,000 filed by the deadline in the Boy Scouts’ federal bankruptcy case – the largest-ever child sex abuse case involving a single national organization.

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Boy Scouts deluged with 92,700 sexual abuse claims, dwarfing U.S. Catholic Church’s numbers

The Boy Scouts of America will face more than 92,700 claims of sexual abuse in a landmark bankruptcy that could reshape the future of one of the nation’s oldest and largest youth organizations, lawyers in the case said Monday as the filing deadline passed.

The number of claims and the total payouts to settle them will easily eclipse those in the sex abuse scandal that engulfed the U.S. Catholic Church more than a decade ago, plaintiffs’ lawyers say.

“This is a staggering number of cases, even beyond what I thought was out there,” said Paul Mones, a Los Angeles attorney who won a $20-million judgment against the Scouts in 2010 and represents several hundred accusers in the bankruptcy. “The scope of this is something I could never have contemplated.”

The 110-year-old Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February as it faced a wave of new sex abuse lawsuits after several states, including California, New York and New Jersey, expanded legal options for childhood victims to sue.

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Boy Scouts’ Bankruptcy Deadline Looms

The Boy Scouts of America will face the last batch of thousands of sex-abuse claims Monday, the deadline for people alleging they were abused as children to come forward in what is shaping up to be the largest bankruptcy case of its kind.

More than 80,000 claims were expected to be filed by Monday in bankruptcy court, according to attorneys involved in the case. The Boy Scouts filed for chapter 11 protection from lawsuits accusing the organization of not taking the necessary precautions to protect the children who joined the group.

The number of claims in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy case is many times the magnitude of the claims in more than 20 Catholic Church diocesan and religious-order bankruptcies that were similarly rooted in widespread child abuse, said James Stang, the lead lawyer for a committee representing people who said they were sexually abused in the Boy Scouts.

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