The Michigan attorney general’s office said it is close to bringing criminal charges in its investigation into allegations that troop leaders and others associated with the Boy Scouts of America sexually assaulted youths in the state.

A spokeswoman for Dana Nessel, the state’s attorney general, said Wednesday that her office is investigating five individuals. She declined to say when charges would be announced and said the investigation is ongoing.

Amid the Boy Scouts of America’s complex bankruptcy case, there is worsening friction between the organization and the major religious groups that help it run thousands of Scout units. At issue: the churches’ fears that an eventual settlement — while protecting the Boy Scouts of America from future sex-abuse lawsuits — could leave many churches unprotected.

The Boy Scouts sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 in an effort to halt individual lawsuits and create a huge compensation fund for thousands of men who say they were molested as youngsters by scoutmasters or other leaders. At the time, the national organization estimated it might face 5,000 cases; it now faces 82,500.

In July, the Boy Scouts of America proposed an $850-million deal that would bar further lawsuits against it and its local councils. The deal did not cover the more than 40,000 organizations that have charters with the organization to sponsor Scout units, including many churches from major religious denominations that are now questioning their future involvement in Scouting.

More than a year into the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy proceedings, frustration is at a boiling point for sex abuse survivors who say the nonprofit organization is doing little to put forth meaningful reparations for their trauma.

Their anger has extended to the bankruptcy court itself, which is redacting hundreds of letters sent to Judge Laurie Silverstein, preventing the public from understanding the full extent of the abuse they say they suffered as children.

On Monday, the Torts Claimants Committee, the official body chosen to represent abuse survivors in the case, filed an objection to the Scouts’ latest bankruptcy reorganization plan, saying it “minimizes the organization’s history of failing to protect children from sexual predators.”

Read Paul’s comments on the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy in this New York Times article.

One lawyer negotiating a resolution to the multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy filed by the Boy Scouts of America billed $267,435 in a single month. Another charged $1,725 for each hour of work. New lawyers fresh out of law school have been billing at an hourly rate of more than $600.

The high-stakes bankruptcy case has drawn in lawyers by the dozens, negotiating how to compensate tens of thousands of people who have filed claims of sexual abuse. Lawyers and other professionals — both those representing the Boy Scouts and some who are representing victims — have submitted fee applications with the court that have now surpassed $100 million. By August, they could reach $150 million.