The 165,000 people who gave $1,000 to Jim Bakker's planned Heritage U.S.A. resort in return for promised four-day vacation stays will receive just $6.54 each.
That's partly because attorneys will receive $2.5 million of the $3.7 million settlement fund (created by former PTL accountants years ago), under a July 24 order issued by U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg in Asheville, North Carolina. A claims administrator will receive $200,000 to track down people entitled to money. Had the victims been given the entire settlement, it would have amounted to only $22.42 each.
Thomas T. Anderson and Associates, a California-based law firm, actually asked the judge for the entire settlement. The firm claimed it would be fruitless to search for all involved in the 16-year-old class action. Thornburg denied that request last year.
Bakker resigned from PTL in 1987 after admitting to an affair with a ministry secretary. He was convicted two years later of a wire- and mail-fraud scheme involving the sale of lifetime partnerships in Heritage U.S.A. in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison. A judge later cut his term to 18 years. He served 5 before being paroled in 1995.
"The Jim Bakker Show" web site offers more information about the show and its hosts.
Christianity Today's earlier coverage of Jim Bakker and PTL includes:
The Re-education of Jim Bakker | Back on the streets, this fallen televangelist is preaching good news to the poor and predicting an asteroid-studded Second Coming (Dec. 7, 1998)
Semi-Amazing Grace | Jay Bakker (yes, Jim and Tammy Faye's son) describes his continuing recovery from church-inflicted wounds (Jan. 23, 2001)
Tammy Faye, Gay Icon | A new documentary rescues the former PTL star's reputation, especially in the homosexual community (Oct. 4, 2000)