Boys Scouts of America sex abuse survivors reject $2.7 billion settlement
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Irving-based Boy Scouts of America failed to reach a financial settlement with tens of thousands of alleged sex abuse victims, after not enough survivors voted to approve a $2.7 billion offer.
Why it matters: Parties to the proposed settlement, which includes religious organizations, insurance companies and attorneys representing victims, will likely have to start a new round of negotiations with BSA.
By the numbers: More than 50,000 survivors cast ballots on the proposal.
- About 73% voted in favor of accepting the proposal, but it needed 75% to pass.
- While $2.7 billion might seem like a lot, it would have broken down to approximately $31,000 for each sex abuse survivor.
Context: USA Gymnastics paid hundreds of sex abuse survivors around $700,000 each in a settlement last year.
Flashback: Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2020, after several states changed laws that allowed victims to sue over decades-old allegations.
What they’re saying: “We are encouraged by these preliminary results and are actively engaging key parties in our case with the hope of reaching additional agreements, which could potentially garner further support for the plan before confirmation,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement.
The other side: “We hope the BSA and the lawyers who supported this plan will take this result as sending a message that the plan they proposed was fundamentally unacceptable to a large bloc of survivors," Irwin Zalkin, who represents more than 150 victims, said in a statement.
- John Humphrey, the co-chair of the committee representing abuse claimants in the bankruptcy, called the settlement "historically low" from the perspective of individual victims, according to Reuters.