Boy Scouts sex abuse claims may be a path to bankruptcy

The Boy Scouts of America may have to file for bankruptcy, as it faces more and more lawsuits from men alleging that they were sexually abused by scout leaders and volunteers in the past.

The 109-year-old organization has already settled a barrage of lawsuits from so many former Boy Scouts that the organization's finances are getting drained.

A spokesperson for the BSA said it was exploring "all available options" and may end up opting for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In response to the latest allegations, the BSA said in a statement: "Any incident of child abuse is one too many, and nothing is more important than the safety and protection of children in our Scouting programs."

The lawsuits come after several states in the US changed their statutes of limitations so that victims of past sex crimes can sue for damages.

New York passed the law starting in August and similar bills are up for discussion in New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania.

Attorney Tim Kosnoff, who is representing hundreds of former-Boy Scout plaintiffs, told China Daily: "We signed up 37 clients yesterday. As of this morning we were at 237. We have 117 sign up packages [with clients] outstanding. It's probably going to be well over 300 people by the end of tomorrow."

Kosnoff said he was not surprised by the scale. "Less than one percent of the perpetrators that are being identified by these men that are contacting us are known perpetrators, that is, men out of the 7,000 plus Boy Scout files," he said. "These are all hidden predators that are being exposed."

In the month that he has been running his campaign, Kosnoff says they have exposed 166 hidden predators. The plaintiffs identify the suspects by first name, troop number and location and with that identifications can be made through the BSA's registration records.

The largest scouting organization in the US, the BSA has 2.2 million youths and a million adult volunteers participating in its programs.

Effie Delimarkos, a spokesperson for the BSA said the organization has stringent abuse prevention guidelines in place and puts prospective scout leaders and volunteers through criminal background checks. Two or more staff must be present with children at all times during activities, she said.

Michael Surbaugh, chief scout executive of the BSA, said on Wednesday that the board had not yet made a decision on bankruptcy, but "an increasing number of lawsuits has put financial pressure on the BSA".

The BSA has been at the center of sexual-abuse scandals in the past, with cases of inappropriate behavior by scout leaders or volunteers dating back to the 1960s.

The organization has had to sue its own insurers for not covering some sex abuse lawsuits.

Insurers have claimed that the Boy Scouts were at fault for not warning parents that their children could face potential abuse.

Kosnoff said he assumes the BSA will end up in Chapter 11.

"Back in December when they announced they were exploring bankruptcy as an option, they had 200 pending cases," he said. "With ours it's growing exponentially. I don't see how the Boy Scouts can survive.

"Their insurance carriers are refusing to pay settlements. They are facing hundreds and probably thousands more, so if they stretch this out, we'll be filing lawsuits against them soon and they will be filled with detailed information on what the Boy Scouts knew and when they knew it, and who these abusers are.

"For each abuser who reads that news article, there'll be 10 or 15 other victims that will come forward and say: 'Yes, he abused me too.'"