The International Society for Krishna Consciousness Web site is located at www.iskcon.com
2005
June 26, 2005 Krishna Payouts Begin
By Hector Becerra, Time Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, page B1, California
Society starts resolving its $9.5-million child abuse case. Bankruptcy filing, school closures precede compensation to 535 former students.
Leaders of the Hare Krishna faith last week began carrying out the terms of a $9.5-million settlement that closes the books on a long-running child abuse scandal.
Under the plan, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness organization has filed for bankruptcy in Los Angeles while it determines how to compensate 535 former students who say they were abused in the 1970s and '80s by adults at boarding schools run by the society.
The settlement covers abuses at Krishna temples and schools across the United States and India that resulted in a 2001 class-action lawsuit...
Los Angeles, CA — The United States Bankruptcy Court of the Central District of California today confirmed a Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan submitted by six Hare Krishna temples and affiliates. The Plan provides 9.5 million dollars in compensation to claimants—primarily former students who were subjected to various forms of abuse or mistreatment while in the society's religious schools...
May 23, 2005 Bankruptcy reorganization plan for Hare Krishna temples approved, Associated Press via sfgate.com
A federal bankruptcy court on Monday approved a reorganization plan that will allow six California-based Hare Krishna temples and their affiliates to remain open while compensating members who claim they were abused at the society's schools.
The plan includes $9.5 million for alleged victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse during the 1970s and 1980s at religious boarding schools run by the Hare Krishnas...
...The society has since located more than 350 more people worldwide who claim they were abused at the schools, known as ashram-based gurukulas. These people will also receive a piece of the compensation fund, said Anuttama Dasa, the Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for the religious society.
"We knew there were more kids who were mistreated or abused and we wanted to try to include them in the settlement," Dasa said...
2004
On TV July 16, 2004 Dateline NBC (Dateline chronicles the personal struggles of three individuals who chose to break free from the life of the extremely religious cultures they were born into back in the 1970s. Keith Morrison reports...)
July 11, 2004A Swami, Paroled Into the Open Arms of His Temple - By PETER DUFFY, New York Times (A disgraced religious leader has served his time in prison and has now returned to lead his New York City flock.
Kirtananda Swami Bhaktipada was once a major figure in the Hare Krishna movement. For the past several years, he has been in a federal prison in North Carolina after pleading guilty to racketeering charges.
Released on June 16...)
March 6, 2004Hare Krishnas in Court, Washington Post, Washington DC (The Hare Krishna movement has filed a reorganization plan in bankruptcy court that its leaders hope will allow it to compensate more than 500 people who have made claims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse.
David Liberman, an attorney for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, said 540 people worldwide have made claims against the organization. About 90 claimants, he said, are involved in a $400 million child abuse lawsuit against the Krishna movement that prompted the organization to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002...)
2003
August 8, 2003Law Suit Against Hare Krishna Dismissed, clickwalla.com (A US Judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking $400 million dollars in damages from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)...
...Spokesperson for ISKON member, Bhaktivedanta Manor, Bimal Krishna Das, said: �When this law suit came about we were very surprised and saddened. We don�t deny these incidents have taken place, but we have 430 centres across the world and it�s not acceptable to punish all the centres because of the actions of individual�s in certain sections...)
June 2 2003Hardly Krishna, by Sushi Das, The Age, Australia (Allegations of child sex abuse could cost America's Hare Krishnas about $600 million. Can the Australian movement survive the fallout?...
...Unlike other religious organisations tainted by similar crises, The International Society of Krishna Consciousness, as the Hare Krishnas are officially known, plans to handle this differently. The organisation is not arguing against the abuse claims. It wants to settle the matter by filing for bankruptcy. This keeps it out of the courts, protects its assets, and allows it to pay compensation to victims who come forward by June 30...
...The Reverend Doctor David Millikan, a Uniting Church minister and university lecturer...
...Millikan, an expert on cults and sects, says that of all the sects that arose around the 1960s, the most resilient have been the Moonies, the Children of God and the Hare Krishnas...)
April 30, 2003Krishna movement tries to locate possible abuse victims, Associated Press (Six Hare Krishna temples in California, along with several other Krishna organizations here and in West Virginia, will place legal notices in major newspapers and magazines in hopes of identifying children who may have been sexually abused or mistreated at boarding schools during the 1970s and 1980s.
The alleged abuse is detailed in a lawsuit that prompted the Krishna movement, which is known officially as the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, to file for bankruptcy last year. The more than 90 alleged victims claim they were raped or physically abused while living in Krishna boarding schools...)
April 29, 2003ISKCON Krishna Temples Seek Claimants in Chapter 11 Reorganization, Business Wire (Press Release) (LOS ANGELES--Eleven temples of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), are publishing legal notice April 30, 2003 in international newspapers, magazines and websites in an effort to contact any parties having claims against them, including any students who may have been abused in Krishna boarding schools in the 1970's and 1980's
The publication is part of a Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan to be submitted to Federal Bankruptcy Courts in West Virginia and California...)
...JOHN QUINONES (VO) And now they are taking their nightmare to court. More than 80 children of Krishna are suing Hare Krishna organizations and their leaders for $400 million...
...JOHN QUINONES (VO) The lawsuit alleges a pattern of sexual abuse. The worst of it, Ben says, occurred at the Krishna school in India...
...JOHN QUINONES (VO) Anuttama Dasa is a spokesman for ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Anuttama calls the lawsuit vague but says he assumes that some of the charges are true...)
March 3, 2002 Former Hare Krishna children allege abuse, Newsday.com (...Iskcon has acknowledged abuses occurred in the boarding schools, which no longer exist, and in 1998 it published a candid report by E. Burke Rochford, a sociologist who had spent years studying the movement and interviewing its followers...)
February 28, 2002RAISED IN A CULT: THE UNTOLD STORY, The Montel Williams Show (Today's guests are finally being given the opportunity to speak publicly about the torture they say they endured by religious cults. Melody spent 22 years deeply involved with the Hare Krishna's and is currently involved in a lawsuit against the organization...)
February 6, 2002Hare Krishnas to declare bankruptcy; say fighting abuse lawsuit could cost them millions, Associated Press via SFGgate.com (Hare Krishna congregations named in a $400 million lawsuit alleging sexual and emotional abuse of boarding school students plan to file for bankruptcy, a spokesman for the Hindu sect said...
...Anuttama Dasa, a Maryland-based spokesman for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, said the lawsuit would cost congregations millions to fight and potentially bankrupt many even if they won...)
February 6, 2002 Hare Krishna congregations to file for bankruptcy, spokesman says - Associated Press via The Nando Times
2000
June 12, 2000Krishnas face huge abuse claim, BBC (...Hare Krishna director Dhira Govinda said Krishna leaders wanted to provide counselling and financial support to victims.
"There is no doubt many children did suffer... while under the care of the organisation," he said.
Krishna leaders had pledged $250,000 a year to investigate past child abuse and aid survivors...)
June 12, 2000 Hare Krishna organization sued for alleged child abuse, CNN.com
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