As it faces sexual abuse lawsuits, Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy protection

The Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Chapter 11 protection is a move to address the hundreds of lawsuits coming forward from victims of sexual abuse going back decades.

The BSA said it intends to use the Chapter 11 process to create a Victims Compensation Trust.

The organization hopes to “equitably compensate victims who were harmed during their time in scouting and continue carrying out its mission for years to come.”

The BSA published a full letter to the victims, which you can read in its entirety here.

“They just got a lot of problems and trying to figure out how they’re going to come out on the back end and don’t want the first cases to get all the resources, so this is a way to say we’re going to pull together and come up with a mechanism and procedure to do all this in a way that makes sense for,” said bankruptcy attorney Shayna Steinfeld.

As of now the local entities, like the Atlanta area council that serves 13 counties across north Georgia won’t be touched. And scouting and activities will continue as normal.

The Boy Scouts National Organization, based in Texas, has a billion to $1.5 billion in assets, and some will get sold off

There will eventually be a process to address all the abuse claims at once but could take years.

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