CHILDREN OF ISKCON VS. ISKCON, AND THE BANKRUPTCY SETTLEMENT (2000-2008)

[Pratyatosa Das ACBSP]

The Lawsuit and the Federal Bankruptcy Settlement were two separate legal actions.

The Lawsuit was filed in 2000 by the Turley Law Firm on behalf of 90+ gurukuli plaintiffs. Turley chose to include in the claim a RICO allegation (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations). Up to that point a RICO claim had never been used in a lawsuit against a religious organization. If it had succeeded, they would have been seen as brilliant and groundbreaking. If it failed, they gambled and took a risk, ultimately at the expense of their clients.

Turley had dreams of a $400M judgement and getting ISKCON entities around the world legally connected in an international child abuse conspiracy. Because each ISKCON entity was set up in the beginning as a separate legal entity, it was easier for the Judge to throw out the RICO claim, which is what happened in 2001.

ISKCON, seeing an opportunity while the lawyers were scrambling to refile a new lawsuit, and without the RICO claim, quickly filed bankruptcy in Federal court in 2002. A few years later, ISKCON was granted a settlement by a Federal Bankruptcy judge.

ISKCON was being sued by potentially hundreds of plaintiffs. That's what bankruptcy protection is for. Think of pharmaceutical companies that get sued for a bad drug. Or a car company sued for a faulty air bag. If they had to fight hundreds (or thousands) of cases, they would go out of business. Instead, they can file bankruptcy, get a judge and the others to agree to a settlement, and then be protected from any additional claims for exactly what they filed bankruptcy for.

The Bankruptcy only included 12 legal ISKCON entities in the USA that ISKCON knew was clearly responsible for child abuse.

Once in bankruptcy the original 90+ gurukulis were forced to work with the Judge on a settlement. ISKCON pled poverty and painted a picture that convinced the judge $9.5M was a fortune for ISKCON. The total settlement was $15M which included legal fees.

It is much more complicated to sue an organization while it's in Federal Bankruptcy. There are legal protections throughout the process. Part of the bankruptcy settlement was that NO ONE can sue those 12 legal entities again, because they mass-settled all claims. Only those entities specifically named in the settlement were protected. There are more legal entities and individuals not covered by that.

Through the Federal settlement agreement, those 12 legal entities were released from liability for all child abuse prior to 2005 (the date of the bankruptcy settlement).

Once it became a class-action settlement, ISKCON and the Judge wanted everyone in the class to sign on. So the number of gurukulis involved in the settlement grew to 600+ (from the initial 90+ who filed the lawsuit).

Filing for Federal bankruptcy had never been done before by a religious organization. Another bold move that turned out to be brilliant on the part of ISKCON's legal defense team. It was so successful that many other religious organizations have done it since, including the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.

Child abuse activist Marci Hamilton said on the Diane Rehm show (July 9, 2021): “The number that’s been floated by the Boy Scouts right now is $850 million. It sounds like a lot of money. And that is why diocese, and in the past the Hare Krishnas, and now the Boy Scouts really like bankruptcy as a way to resolve child abuse claims, because it aggregates it. It makes it look like they’re paying so much. But in fact, on average victims will be spending about $830,000 over the course of their lifetimes for the harm done to them. This settlement is going to give them $10,000 apiece.” https://dianerehm.org/.../what-the-boy-scouts-settlement...

In contrast, ISKCON gave gurukulis amounts ranging from $1,000 to $45,000.

To summarize, the Gurukuli lawsuit was thrown out by a judge (one legal action). In response to that, anticipating additional lawsuits to be filed, ISKCON filed bankruptcy (2nd legal action). The bankruptcy was successful in protecting those 12 ISKCON entities from future legal action connected with child abuse that happened prior to the settlement in 2005, in exchange for a $9.5M settlement payout.

Turley was asked to compare the abuse and the response by the Krishnas and the Catholics. He said, "The Hare Krishnas are far more vicious in what happened to the children. The Roman Catholics are far more sophisticated in handling litigation, and no one is as good at concealment as the Catholics."

Timeline:

https://surrealist.org/gurukula/timeline/lawsuit.html

This photo was used to show ISKCON leaders the high percentage of 2nd generation children who are no longer involved in ISKCON, indicated by the red X and yellow X. The black cross indicates they died.

[Pratyatosa Das ACBSP]

Pratyatosa Das

Here are a few more details: In 1997, Badrinarayan sent an email to all of the leaders in his zone and to all North American GBCs warning them that a Dallas Law Firm (Turley) had just won the biggest child abuse lawsuit in history: US$120 million! The email was immediately forwarded to me. I immediately sent an email to that law firm asking them whether or not they were interested in suing ISKCON. They replied to me 1 1/2 years later, in early 1999, asking me if I had "hired" a lawyer yet. Then I published a VNN.ORG article, giving Turley's toll-free number, and requesting victims to come forward. Victims then contacted the law firm and told them about Tim Lee (Puranjana). Puranjana told them about Nori Muster, who wrote "Betrayal of the Spirit." Windle Turley then placed a conference call to the 3 of us. That's how it all started.

Saraswati Richardson Jones

So the timeline goes back to 1997 when Badrinarayan emailed certain devotees about Turley. Got it.

Pratyatosa Das

Saraswati Richardson Jones BTW, my original article (which got the lawsuit started) is still online: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/.../WD9903/WD09-3280.html

[Pratyatosa Das ACBSP]

Pratyatosa Das

Saraswati Richardson Jones Just now, I accidentally came across that fateful email:

Date: 27 Jul 97 21:39:16 EDT

From: Badrinarayan dasa (10347...@CompuServe.COM)

To: task force (Children) (task...@com.bbt.se),

WWW: Madan Gopal (Dasa) LOK (Denver CO - USA) (m...@com.org),

Ramvirya prabhu/ Denver (ramv...@aol.com),

dharmasetu (bri...@gemini.adnc.com),

GBC discussions (gbc.dis...@com.bbt.se),

Gunagrahi Goswami (10263...@CompuServe.COM),

Romapad Maharaj (10330...@CompuServe.COM),

Suhotra Maharaj (suhotr...@com.bbt.se),

Bir krsna maharaj (70324...@CompuServe.COM),

Dhruva Maharaj (SD) (dm...@ix.netcom.com),

WWW: Bhima (Dasa) ACBSP (St. Louis MO - USA) (bh...@com.org),

virabahu prabhu (73543...@CompuServe.COM),

Jagai Nitai prabhu (ja...@rupa.com),

Svavasa prabhu (sva...@webcom.com),

Vaninath Vasu prabhu (vani...@aol.com),

amarendra prabhu (migh...@msn.com),

madhusevita prabhu (madhusev...@com.bbt.se),

Caru prabhu....Utah (caru...@burgoyne.com),

Ananta Rupa (Boise) (arun_...@hp.com),

vaikuntha prabhu/ SD (10540...@CompuServe.COM),

Bhakti-tirtha Swami (10533...@CompuServe.COM)

Subject: Hand writting on the wall?

Dear Maharajs and prabhus:

Hare Krsna. I am sending the following, in case you didn't see it the first time, or thought it didn't impact your area of service. Sadly,if not for moral or spiritual reasons, then at least for financial ones, the following article gives some hint of what is potentially looming out there if we don't clean up the toxic pond of child abuse we have in ISKCON.

Imagine a class action with all our child abuse laundry in a court of law? What angered the jury in the following article the most was that the church knew and did not move strongly enough to prevent future abuse or care for the victims.

Get a judgement like this and we can say goodbye to the big Mayapur temple and everything else in between at least in N. America, for our lifetime. (Who can estimate the ramifications with the European governments who are already antagonistic?)

Sorry if this seems like scare tactics, that is not really my intent, but the danger is out there and being forewarned is being forearmed. We have a window of opportunity to fix this before the lid blows. Are we using it.....are you as temple presidents and GBC making sure that you have trained child protection teams in place, qualified teachers for academics and ashrams, carefully screening newly arrived devotees for any dark chapters in their closet, when in doubt restricting their access to children and to the temple in general?

For more information on how to set up child protection teams and whatelse you can do to fight abuse and deal with it when it happens in North America contact Muralivadaka prabhu at: "afn0...@freenet5.afn.org" or Jahnavi dasi at "afn5...@afn.org"

For the rest of the world: Dharmaraj prabhu at: "dharmar...@com.bbt.se"

Just to point out that are far from having this all worked out and behind us, yes, we have a GBC appointed task force working on this....as the chair, I think it is my duty to let you know that I cannot even get funding for the one conference call our committee had...or an e-mail responded to from the GBC executive committee members (to his credit, Bir Krsna Maharaj did get back with me, but he was obliged to say that he was at a loss as to where to get any funding for the project...although it was voted on and approved by all of us.)

(I regret airing this in public, but I do so as a last resort; this is my notice that I fear losing the other members of the committee and the effort unraveling.)

Your servant, Badrinarayan dasa

Saraswati Richardson Jones

Pratyatosa Das Putting aside the fact that the contact person for child protection in North America was Murlivadaka, a serial child molester, it is interesting to note that when Badrinarayan wrote this email in 1997, begging the other leaders to take child protection seriously, he was himself actively involved at that moment in the cover-up of Lokanath's child molestation case.

Pratyatosa Das

Saraswati Richardson Jones It's called hypocrisy!

Pratyatosa Das

Saraswati Richardson Jones After we, at the request of the GBC, had sent all of the ISKCON child abuse records to Murlivadaka, we found out about his child abuse. I pointed this out to my wife, and she said, "Isn't it ridiculous?!"

Pratyatosa Das

Here's the attachment to the above email:

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

From: INTERNET:soj...@aol.com, INTERNET:soj...@aol.com

DATE: 7/25/97 11:21 AM

$120 Million Damage Award for Sexual Abuse by Priest

By PETER STEINFELS

A Dallas jury awarded nearly $120 million in damages on Thursday after finding that the local Roman Catholic diocese had ignored evidence that a priest was sexually abusing boys and that it had then tried to cover up the scandal.

William Ryan, a spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that the award was "almost certainly the largest judgment that had been made against the church" in a sexual abuse case, but that the decision would probably be appealed.

The damages are to be paid by the Diocese of Dallas and the priest, the Rev. Rudolph Kos, 52, who was suspended five years ago. Kos, who now lives in San Diego, did not defend himself in the civil trial, but has publicly denied some of the charges against him. He still faces criminal charges of sexual abuse of two of the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs -- 10 men and the family of another who committed suicide at the age of 20 -- said that the abuse occurred between 1977 and 1992 while Kos was a student at Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas and while he was assigned to three separate churches.

They charged that a reasonable investigation by church officials would have revealed that the seminary applicant had served a year in a juvenile detention center for molesting a neighbor. He had also entered a marriage that was annulled by the diocese's marriage tribunal, and his ex-wife said in a deposition that she had informed a tribunal official of her former husband's sexual interest in boys.

The plaintiffs pointed to a series of warnings and complaints about Kos's proclivities that came from other priests throughout the late 1980s. Despite these, the priest was made a pastor in 1988.

The diocese's lawyer, Randal Mathis, maintained during the trial that diocesan officials had made what they "thought were appropriate, fair and reasonable judgments." Kos was "a criminal who belongs in jail," Mathis said, but he was also "a very convincing man."

Diocesan officials have stated that that they could not mount a full-scale investigation without a direct complaint from a victim and that they suspended him promptly when the first such complaint came in 1992.

The diocesan marriage tribunal official, the Rev. Gerald Hughes, denied at the trial that Kos' ex-wife had told him that her former husband was attracted to boys.

Kos was accused of molesting altar boys, some as young as 9, in three Dallas parishes. One plaintiff reported being sexually abused several times a week for years, starting when he was 13. Another plaintiff had lived with Kos for two years in the priest's parish residence; the public explanation was that Kos had legally adopted him.

During 11 weeks of testimony, the jury heard extensive descriptions of the psychological damage that the plaintiffs said had been caused by the sexual abuse. The plaintiffs were asking for $146.5 million in damages for past and future medical care, lost earnings and mental anguish. The jury ultimately awarded them $100 million for such damages, and $18 million for punitive damages.

The jury devised a complex formula that split the blame between the church and the priest and determined the shares of the award that each would pay in each plaintiff's case. In different cases the diocese was judged to bear anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of the responsibility.

Kos, who works as a paralegal, is not expected to pay much of his share.

The painful nature of much of the plaintiff's' testimony was underlined Monday by the unusual conduct of Anne Ashby, the state district judge hearing the case.

After final arguments were heard and the jurors were dismissed for the day, Judge Ashby removed her robe, took a seat in the jury box and told the plaintiffs, "I've been so close to your tragedy it just breaks my heart."

"Everybody in this courtroom has been grieving," she said. "If anything like this can ever be positive, then let there be healing and let there be hope."

Although a number of cases have lingered in the courts, the question of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests has been less visible since 1995, when widely publicized accusations against the late Cardinal Joseph l Bernardin, archbishop of Chicago, were retracted and many people came to believe that the news media's treatment of the topic had become responsible.

But the judgment against the Dallas diocese, where two other cases of sexual abuse by priests are pending, is likely to revive concern that the problem is far from resolved.

Copyright 1997 The New York Times