Televangelist Jim Bakker has promised to pay up to $60,524 to refund 385 Arkansas residents who received a silver-based concoction he touted as a cure-all for health problems.
The payments will resolve a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Leslie Rutledge with no further penalties.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox signed off on the settlement Friday, ending the 15-month-old litigation against Bakker and Morningside Church Productions Inc., which produces "The Jim Bakker Show." The lawsuit was in response to Bakker's endorsement of a line of colloidal silver products, sold as a way to prevent and treat covid-19 and other illnesses.
The affected Arkansas residents either outright bought the products, marketed as Silver Solution, or they received the products in exchange for a donation to Bakker’s Morningside Church in Blue Eye, Mo., between Feb. 12, 2020, and March 10, 2020.
Federal regulators say such silver-based products cannot cure the coronavirus or mitigate its symptoms, describing their sale as a "threat to the public health."
The defendants do not admit wrongdoing and the seven-page settlement bars them from offering, selling or advertising any colloidal silver or silver-salt product as a treatment or preventative for any disease.
If the defendants don't pay on time, they will be required to pay $202,500 in fines and legal expenses, with the possibility of further sanctions, the settlement states.