TAMPA, Fla. — Tens of thousands of Boy Scout sexual abuse survivors are still waiting for payment from a billion-dollar settlement, while nearly $40 million has already gone to trustee and legal fees since the trust fund was approved three years ago.
Lee Forbes, Curtis Garrison and Kenneth Richter are among the more than 62,000 survivors who have been approved for settlements through the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy trust.
Watch full report from I-Team Investigative reporter Katie LaGrone
For Forbes, the settlement represents justice for abuse, he said, that lasted nearly two years while he was a teen scout in the Explorer program.
"It's all the justice I'm going to get," he said.
For Garrison, the money represents accountability.
"They need to pay us in full for all the harm they've done," he said.
Our recent investigation found that five years after the Boy Scouts agreed to settle one of the costliest child sex abuse cases in U.S. history, its bankruptcy trust fund does not have enough money to pay all 62,000 survivors what they are owed. As a result, survivors are expected to receive 4.7% of their claims' value.
In Forbes' case, that means about $75,000 from his abuse, which was valued at $1.6 million.
"It's laughable," he said.
Garrison's settlement total equals just over $100,000 from what he describes as five years of abuse valued at $2.5 million.
"I haven't gotten a penny," Garrison said. [He challenged his case, which caused a delay in payouts.
But settlement documents we recently analyzed reveal that while survivors have received little — if anything at all — those working the case have been collecting millions of dollars since the trust fund was set up.
According to annual reports posted to the trust fund's website, nearly $40 million has gone to trustee and legal fees since the settlement was approved three years ago.
The judge serving as trustee has been paid more than $2 million each year, or $175,000 per month.
"Oh my god, I didn't know that," Kenneth Richter said when investigative reporter Katie LaGrone shared with him her findings.
"She's going to receive in one month more than the vast majority of us will ever get after a lot of abuse and being awarded a lot more," Garrison said in response to the trustee's compensation.
While survivors approved the Trustee's compensation package, those we spoke with said they didn't expect it would take so long for them to begin receiving payouts.
Financial records also show that, each year, more than $6 million has gone to trust fund attorneys in legal fees.
"But we were the ones that were abused,” exclaimed Richter.“That's a lot of money! Out of $6 million, we could get a nice piece of change out of that,” he said.
To date, the trust has distributed nearly $1.3 billion to just over 50,000 survivors. So $40 million in trust and legal fees represents about 3% of the money spent so far.
Steven Berman is a bankruptcy attorney with no involvement in the case. We asked him to review the trust fund's annual reports since 2023.
"The timing of payouts has taken too long. The expenses for professionals are too high in relation to the amount of the payouts," Berman said.
"It's imperfect for sure. I think it is difficult to reconcile a large claim like that that has been allowed and a small distribution when the costs of administration are so high," Berman said.
In a statement, representatives for the trust fund said they "sympathize with survivors who have waited decades for a measure of justice" and described the millions spent on legal and trustee fees as payment for services that include suing insurers in an "attempt to recoup billions of dollars more for survivors."
But how much that will amount to — and how long it will take — remains unclear.
"It's very unfair because I should get what I have coming to me. I'm the one that was raped and suffered the abuse," Richter said.
When asked if the payouts so far represent justice to survivors, Garrison responded, "It's not justice. It's further exploitation. It's further abuse.”
Statement from the Scouting Settlement Trust Fund:
The Scouting Settlement Trust sympathizes with Survivors who have waited decades for a measure of justice. The Trust was created under the terms of the Court-approved BSA plan of reorganization to review and pay allowed claims of Survivors from the assets transferred to the Trust. Unfortunately, those assets do not have sufficient value to pay Survivors the full value of their allowed claims. The Trust has sued those insurers that have refused to pay Scouting abuse claims under the insurance policies they issued to BSA and others in order to attempt to recoup billions of dollars more for Survivors. Consistent with standard practice in these types of complex cases, the professionals employed by the Trust are paid for their services, including the services they provide in evaluating and determining claims and in attempting to maximize the value of Trust assets for the benefit of Scouting sexual abuse survivors.