‘Partners’ Left Out of PTL Settlement

More than $49 million has been paid to creditors of the defunct PTL religious empire, but the contributors known as lifetime partners got nothing, says the final report in the PTL bankruptcy case.

The report, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbia, S.C., ended what the lawyers who wrote it called “one of the most bizarre and singularly extraordinary bankruptcy cases ever.”

The PTL ministry owed $130 million after it collapsed in 1987 in the midst of a sex-and-money scandal that sent founder Jim Bakker to federal prison.

About 116,000 lifetime partners had contributed $158 million to the ministry in return for the promise of free lodging at PTL’s Christian theme park.

The partners had argued in court that they were entitled to reimbursements. But a judge ruled last year that they were not considered creditors and should not expect anything in return for their contributions.

More than $43 million went to secured creditors, primarily lending institutions that held liens or mortgages on property, and claims from York County, S.C. About $4.5 million paid off debts, including attorneys’ fees, bills from television stations and cable companies, and employees’ claims for salaries and medical benefits.

The IRS and the state of South Carolina, which had submitted claims totaling $66 million, agreed to share the remaining $1.3 million. Bakker resigned as PTL president in 1987 after confessing that he had a sexual encounter with a church secretary in a Florida hotel. Subsequently, evidence surfaced that he had mismanaged PTL money. Bakker was convicted in 1989 of defrauding his followers. He is serving an 18-year prison sentence.