The Nation - News from Nov. 11, 1988

Jim and Tammy Bakker, along with a former top aide, must repay $7.7 million to PTL for reaping undeserved profits and mismanaging the TV ministry, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rufus Reynolds ordered. Reynolds said he determined that the Bakkers and former PTL Vice President David Taggart were overpaid during their last four years at the ministry. PTL, now under administration of the bankruptcy court, sued the Bakkers and Taggart last Feb. 1 for $52 million, alleging they grossly mismanaged the ministry by taking huge sums for personal use between 1984 and 1987, while PTL couldn’t pay its bills. During the suit’s trial in Columbia, S.C., PTL dropped its claim to all but $7.7 million. Reynolds’ judgment is the first time any court has ruled that Bakker or other PTL leaders used PTL donors’ money improperly. Reynolds, in his 50-page explanation for the judgments, said the expenditures at PTL under Bakker were “unbelievable” and a “waste of PTL’s money.” He also accused the administrators of “gross mismanagement.”