By DAVID CRARY

AP – Barraged with sex-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the 110-year-old organization to carry on.

The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, sets in motion what could be one of the biggest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen. Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested as scouts by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in their states’ statute-of-limitations laws.

Bankruptcy will enable the Scouts to put those lawsuits on hold for now. But ultimately they could be forced to sell off some of their vast property holdings, including campgrounds and hiking trails, to raise money for a compensation trust fund that could surpass $1 billion.

The organization encouraged all victims to come forward to file claims.

The bankruptcy petition listed the Boy Scouts’ assets at between $1 billion and $10 billion, and its liabilities at $500 million to $1 billion.

“Scouting programs will continue throughout this process and for many years to come,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement. ”Local councils are not filing for bankruptcy because they are legally separate and distinct organizations.”

The Boy Scouts are just the latest major American institution to face a heavy price over sexual abuse. Roman Catholic dioceses across the country and schools such as Penn State and Michigan State have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.

The bankruptcy represents a painful turn for an organization that has been a pillar of American civic life for generations and a training ground for future leaders. Achieving the rank of Eagle Scout has long been a proud accomplishment that politicians, business leaders, astronauts and others put on their resumes and in their official biographies.

The Boy Scouts’ finances have been strained in recent years by declining membership and sex-abuse settlements.

The number of youths taking part in scouting has dropped below 2 million, down from a peak of more than 4 million during the 1970s. The organization has tried to counter the decline by admitting girls, but its membership rolls took a big hit Jan. 1 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — for decades a major sponsor of Boy Scout units — cut ties and withdrew more than 400,000 scouts in favor of programs of its own.

The financial outlook worsened last year after New York, Arizona, New Jersey and California passed laws making it easier for victims of long-ago abuse to file claims. Teams of lawyers across the U.S. have been signing up clients by the hundreds to sue the Boy Scouts.

Most of the newly surfacing cases date to the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s; the organization says there were only five known abuse victims in 2018. The Boy Scouts credit the change to an array of prevention policies adopted since the mid-1980s, including mandatory criminal background checks and abuse-prevention training for all staff and volunteers, and a rule that two or more adult leaders be present during all activities.

Many of the lawsuits accuse the organization of negligence and cover-ups, mostly from decades ago.

“We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children,” said Roger Mosby, the Boy Scouts’ president and CEO. “While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process, with the proposed trust structure, will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA’s important mission.”

Among other matters to be addressed in bankruptcy court: the fate of the Boy Scouts’ assets; the extent to which the organization’s insurance will help cover compensation; and whether assets of the Scouts’ 261 local councils will be added to the fund.

“There are a lot of very angry, resentful men out there who will not allow the Boy Scouts to get away without saying what all their assets are,” said lawyer Paul Mones, who represents numerous clients suing the Boy Scouts. “They want no stone unturned.”

Amid the crush of lawsuits, the Scouts recently mortgaged major properties owned by the national leadership, including the headquarters in Irving, Texas, and the 140,000-acre Philmont Ranch in New Mexico, to help secure a line of credit.

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts have kept confidential files since the 1920s listing staff and volunteers implicated in sexual abuse, for the avowed purpose of keeping predators away from youth. According to a court deposition, the files as of January listed 7,819 suspected abusers and 12,254 victims.

Until last spring, the organization had insisted it never knowingly allowed a predator to work with youths. But in May, The Associated Press reported that attorneys for abuse victims had identified multiple cases in which known predators were allowed to return to leadership posts. The next day, Boy Scouts chief executive Mike Surbaugh wrote to a congressional committee, acknowledging the group’s previous claim was untrue.

James Kretschmer of Houston, among the many men suing for alleged abuse, said he was molested by a Scout leader over several months in the mid-1970s in the Spokane, Washington, area. Regarding the bankruptcy, he said, “It is a shame because at its core and what it was supposed to be, the Boy Scouts is a beautiful organization.”

“But you know, anything can be corrupted,” he added. “And if they’re not going to protect the people that they’ve entrusted with the children, then shut it down and move on.”

Critics of the Boy Scouts charged that the bankruptcy filing is aimed in part at the preventing the disclosure of further damning details.

“This bankruptcy is not about finances,” said Scott Coats, who sued in New York last month over abuse he claimed to have suffered in the 1970s. “This bankruptcy is about the reputation of the Boy Scouts of America and about silencing victims and keeping the truth away from the eyes of the public.”

Mike Pfau, a Seattle-based attorney whose firm is representing scores of men nationwide, said that while the Boy Scouts’ local councils are not included in the bankruptcy filing, the plaintiffs may go after their property holdings, too.

“We believe the real property held by the local councils may be worth significantly more than the Boy Scouts’ assets,” he said. He said one question will be whether the Boy Scouts transferred property to its local councils in hopes of putting it out of the reach of those suing the organization.

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Associated Press video journalist John Mone in Houston contributed.

By TOM KRISHER

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors decision to pull out of Australia, New Zealand and Thailand as part of a strategy to exit markets that don’t produce adequate returns on investments raised dismay Monday from officials concerned over job losses.

The company said in a statement Sunday that it plans to wind down sales, engineering and design operations for its historic Holden brand in Australia and New Zealand in 2021. It also plans to sell its Rayong factory in Thailand to China’s Great Wall Motors and withdraw the Chevrolet brand from Thailand by the end of this year.

“This is a very disappointing outcome,” said Karen Andrews, Australia’s minister for Industry, Science and Technology. She said it was unfortunate both because about 500 workers would loose their jobs, but also because “they only advised the government of this decision just before the announcement.”

Dave Smith of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union also expressed chagrin.

Workers at Holden had thought they’d “been through the worst of it, and that’s not the case,” Smith said. “For many of them their long-term workers have been very loyal to the company … they’ve loved being part of the car industry, and now, it was such an iconic brand coming to an end; it’ll mean an end to their jobs.”

GM has 828 employees in Australia and New Zealand and another 1,500 in Thailand, the company said.

In Thailand, the decision to sell GM’s plant in Rayong, south of Bangkok, may well end up being good news for workers there.

Great Wall Motors, a major maker of sport utility vehicles and pickups, said it intends to expand in Southeast Asia using the plant in Thailand as its base.

“We will also promote the development of the local supply chain, research and development and related industries, plus contribute more to the exchequer of both the local Rayong and Thailand governments,” Great Wall’s vice president for global strategy, Liu Xiangshang.

Thailand is still determined to be the “Detroit of Asia,” Krichanont Iyapunya, a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry said. He said plant closures and openings happen constantly.

“The automobile industry must be adaptive,” Krichanont said.

Liu, of Great Wall Motors, said the Thai expansion was part of the company’s global push, following the launch of a plant in Tula in Russia in 2019 and plans to acquire GM’s Talegaon plant in India.

GM has struggled in Asia in the past year. Its International Operations, which include China, lost $200 million last year, including $100 million in the fourth quarter. It analyzed the business case for future production at the Rayong plant, but low utilization of its capacity and low sales volumes “made continued GM production at the site unsustainable,” the company said.

GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, said the company wants to focus on markets where it can drive strong returns, scaling back operations in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand to selling niche specialty vehicles. GM will support its employees and customers in the transition, she said.

GM is making the same moves in Japan, Russia and Europe, where “we don’t have significant scale,” she said.

“We are pursuing a niche presence by selling profitable high-end imported vehicles supported by a lean GM structure,” International Operations Senior Vice President Julian Blissett said in the statement.

GM said it will honor all warranties in the markets, and it will continue to provide service and parts. Local operations also will handle recalls and any safety-related issues, the company said.

The Detroit automaker expects to take $1.1 billion worth of cash and noncash charges this year as it cuts operations in the three countries.

GM has a long history in Australia with the Holden brand, where cars were designed and sold in the U.S. and other markets. The 2008 and 2009 Pontiac G8 muscle car, for instance, was designed as a Holden Commodore and built in Australia. But Holden’s market share, which was nearly 22% in 2002, fell to just over 4% last year.

GM President Mark Reuss, who once ran the Australian operations, said the company explored options to continue Holden, “but none could overcome the challenges of the investments needed for the highly fragmented right-hand-drive market, the economics to support growing the brand, and delivering an appropriate return on investment,” he said in the statement.

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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach and reporter Preeyapa Temcharoen in Bangkok contributed.