MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Martin Moylan
Minneapolis · May 24, 2016
Updated: 5:30 p.m. | Posted: 12:41 p.m.
Attorneys for victims of clergy sex abuse say the bankrupt Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis could have $1.7 billion in net assets to compensate abuse survivors — over $1 billion more than what it has claimed.
The attorneys argue in a recently filed motion that the archdiocese is trying to conceal and understate its assets, but the church says that isn’t so.
Abuse victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson said the church has indicated it would have less than $50 million to make payments to some 430 abuse victims.
“What has been happening in this bankruptcy is a serious and sinister scheme to hide, to conceal their true net worth. And not have to account to the survivors,” he said.
The archdiocese has used a variety of tactics to under-report its true worth, Anderson said. He and the committee for unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy contend the archdiocese controls parishes, schools, charities, foundations and other entities with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, which they say should be available to abuse victims.
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