Victims of childhood sexual abuse are challenging the Boy Scouts of America for control of the youth group’s multibillion-dollar bankruptcy case, saying they can save scouting’s future while compensating those who have suffered from its history of abuse, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. An official committee representing sex-abuse victims said that because the Boy Scouts have been unable to come up with a viable settlement offer, victims themselves should be able to float a competing chapter 11 plan. “The committee filed this motion because abuse survivors are not fairly treated under the Boy Scouts proposed plan,” said James Stang, lawyer for the committee. The Boy Scouts have said they need to exit chapter 11 by the end of the summer for financial reasons, but don’t have the support of victims’ groups, which have largely rejected an opening settlement offer. “We wholeheartedly share the official tort claimants’ committee’s determination and commitment to equitably compensate survivors,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement. The committee’s challenge to extended exclusivity for the Boy Scouts amounts to a nuclear option in bankruptcy court that, if approved, could take the chapter 11 case in a radically different direction. In court papers filed on Thursday, the committee sharpened its criticism of the Boy Scouts plan as legally flawed and financially insufficient for the nearly 84,000 men who have stepped forward seeking compensation. To settle with victims, the organization last month offered to furnish cash, artwork and other assets, plus the rights to insurance policies dating back to 1935. The Boy Scouts also said they would seek $300 million for victims from hundreds of affiliated local councils spread across the country, which aren’t themselves in bankruptcy but are seeking to participate in a broad victim settlement through the chapter 11 proceeding.
