Attorney Tim Kosnoff for the Abused in Scouting group said, “This will sound hyperbolic, but it’s sex trafficking. It’s the largest pedophile ring on earth.”
The lawsuit claims that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) knew for decades that sexual predators of boys had infiltrated scouting.
The BSA has admitted that it kept a list of “ineligible volunteers” since the 1920s that contained the names of alleged sexual predators.
The BSA denies hiding pedophiles from law enforcement, but lawyers say the organization routinely tried to cover up the cases by urging abusers to voluntarily resign and move on.
The BSA said it reported another 120 cases to state law enforcement after receiving the new information from Abused in Scouting lawyers.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of “S.D.,” a man from Pennsylvania who claims he was sexually abused hundreds of times in the 1970s when he was 12 or 13 years old by Paul Antosh, his former Scout Master who now lives in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
S.D.’s attorney Stewart Eisenberg said the Antosh lawsuit is the first of many against the BSA to come. He said they have approximately 800 clients ranging in age from 14 to 88.
Eisenberg also said that even more victims have yet to come forward:
“We know that when a pedophile abuses a victim, it’s not just one. So each of the 350 abusers have dozens of other victims who have not come forward.”
Most of the boys are from Texas, Florida, California, or North Carolina. Eisenberg said that some states like North Carolina had “disproportionately large” numbers of sexual abuse victims.