Bakker Liable for Damages to PTL Benefactors

Jim Bakker was found liable by a jury today for nearly $130 million in damages in a lawsuit filed by former PTL religious contributors.

The lawsuit’s other defendants--Big 8 accounting firm Deloitte, Haskins & Sells; David Taggart, Bakker’s former personal aide, and Aimee Cortese, a minister from New York who served on PTL’s board of directors--were not liable, the jury ruled.

The civil suit, which totaled $757 million when it was filed in 1987, alleged that Bakker conspired with other PTL officials and accountants to set up secret bank accounts to give Bakker, his wife, Tammy, and other ministry leaders huge bonuses. Bakker has already been convicted on criminal counts related to the scandal.

Plaintiffs in the class-action suit were 145,000 PTL contributors who were told their donations would buy them lifetime time-share rights at Bakker’s Heritage USA religious theme park.

The jury said Bakker should pay $129,618,000 in actual damages and $129,618 in punitive damages. Jurors held that Bakker, who earns 12 cents an hour working at a prison hospital, would be required to pay punitive damages because he committed common law fraud.