Boy Scouts of America Is Bankrupt, But Not Because It’s Broke
The group is seeking protection from a wave of abuse claims.
Photographer: George Frey/Getty Images
The Boy Scouts of America is bankrupt. On Feb. 18, the 110-year-old congressionally chartered organization — whose members have included Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King Jr., and four U.S. presidents — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, citing the mounting legal fees incurred by the 275 sex abuse lawsuits it currently faces and an additional 1,400 individual abuse claims that it knows about but have not yet been filed.
Yet the organization isn’t broke. In its bankruptcy petition, BSA estimated that it had between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and less than $1 billion in liabilities. Instead, the Boy Scouts appear to be using bankruptcy to limit the the amount of money it will have to pay to settle its sexual abuse cases.