Jim Bakker: The PTL Fraud and the Silver Solution

← Back to People

Updated 29 October 2026. Every fact below is dated and attributed to its source.

Who was Jim Bakker?

Jim Bakker was an American televangelist who built the PTL television ministry and the Heritage USA Christian theme park, and who was convicted in 1989 on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy for selling more "lifetime partnerships" in the park than it could ever honour. After prison he returned to television, and in 2021 he and his Missouri church paid $156,000 in restitution to settle a state lawsuit over a silver product offered on his show as a coronavirus remedy. He died on 5 October 2026, aged 86.

That is the short answer. The longer one matters, because the same shape of appeal still runs on Christian television today: a gift tied to a promise, a product tied to fear, and a preacher who asks you to trust the screen more than your own parish.

Why does the Jim Bakker story still matter?

Picture a retired couple in 1984. They watch the PTL Club every afternoon. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker feel like family. Jim shows photos of the grounds and says a thousand dollars will give them a room every year for the rest of their lives, and that partners are building a home for God's people. They write the cheque. It feels like an act of faith and a sensible holiday plan at the same time.

Now picture a widow in February 2020. The news is full of a new virus. Her favourite Christian programme is talking about end times and staying ready. A guest says a silver liquid has been tested against other coronaviruses and can "totally eliminate it". A number appears on the screen. Four bottles, $80. She calls.

Both of them trusted a man because he spoke about God. Both were asked for money in the same breath as a promise. The government later found that the first promise was a fraud. The second case ended in a settlement and refunds. The people on the other end of those phone lines are why this page exists.

What did Jim Bakker promise PTL partners?

Bakker and his first wife, Tammy Faye, began the PTL Club in 1974. PTL stood for "Praise the Lord". By the mid-1980s the show drew up to 13 million viewers, according to the Associated Press, and was taped at a 2,300-acre complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina. The Charlotte Observer reports that Heritage USA drew nearly 6 million visitors at its 1986 peak, which made it the third most popular theme park in America.

The money machine was the "lifetime partnership". The US Postal Inspection Service, which investigated the case, sets it out plainly. In January 1984 Bakker introduced the Grand Hotel on his show. For $1,000, a partner would be allowed to stay four days and three nights every year for life. Bakker said he could accept only 25,000 partnerships. By the end of 1987 he had sold 159,903.

Those numbers are the deception in one line. A hotel cannot give 160,000 families three nights a year each. The Charlotte Observer, whose reporting on PTL won a Pulitzer Prize, put it simply in its 6 October 2026 retrospective: it was "a promise Bakker didn't have enough rooms to keep."

The scarcity was the hook. "Only 25,000" told viewers to act now before the door closed. The door never closed. More partnerships were sold, and the money went where prosecutors said it went.

What did the court find?

The collapse began in March 1987, when Bakker resigned from PTL ahead of reports of a 1980 sexual encounter with a church secretary and a payment from ministry funds to keep it quiet. He admitted the encounter. His denomination, the Assemblies of God, later defrocked him (Reuters, 6 October 2026).

Federal investigators then turned to the money. Postal inspectors, the FBI and the IRS formed a task force, because the partnership scheme depended on the mail. A grand jury indicted Bakker in 1988 for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy (AP, 6 October 2026).

On 5 October 1989, after a trial in Charlotte, a jury found him guilty on all 24 counts. Reuters reports that prosecutors said he defrauded followers of $158 million by selling vacations he could not provide, and siphoned $3.7 million to pay for homes, luxury cars and, famously, an air-conditioned dog house. On 24 October 1989 Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. The judge said, as Reuters reported: "Those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests."

That sentence did not stand. In 1991 a federal appeals court upheld the conviction but called the judge's remarks "too intemperate to ignore" (Charlotte Observer) and ordered a new sentence. It was later reduced to eight years. Bakker was released on parole in 1994, after nearly five years behind bars.

What did Jim Bakker say in his defence?

Bakker always denied that he set out to cheat anyone. Before sentencing he told the court: "I have sinned. I have made mistakes. But never in my life did I intend to defraud anyone" (Reuters, 6 October 2026).

After prison he went further. He wrote a book titled I Was Wrong, in which he renounced the prosperity gospel he had preached, the teaching that God rewards faith and giving with money and health. That is a real admission from the man himself, and it deserves to be read fairly. Few televangelists have ever put those three words on a cover.

What he did next is also part of the record. In 2003 he launched The Jim Bakker Show with his second wife, Lori, and from 2008 taped it at Morningside, a development near Branson, Missouri. Reuters notes that he once again pleaded with viewers for donations. The Charlotte Observer describes him "hawking freeze-dried food and survivalist gear for the coming Apocalypse."

Prefer to give instead of buy? You can support this ministry with a donation.

What was the Silver Solution case?

On the 12 February 2020 broadcast of The Jim Bakker Show, Bakker held up a bottle and asked his guest, Sherrill Sellman, whom he introduced as a natural health expert: "This influenza that is now circling the globe, you're saying that Silver Solution would be effective?" She replied, as quoted by NPR on 11 March 2020: "Well, let's say it hasn't been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it has been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours." She added: "Totally eliminate it. Kills it. Deactivates it." A message on screen offered four 4-ounce bottles for $80.

Regulators moved fast. On 3 March 2020 the New York Attorney General's office sent Bakker a cease-and-desist letter. A few days later the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission warned him that his website and Facebook page were selling "unapproved new drugs" (NPR). On 10 March 2020 Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued Bakker and Morningside Church Productions. The lawsuit said the cure claim was made on 11 episodes in February and March 2020, and that Silver Solution was offered to people who agreed to contribute $80 to $125 (AP, 24 June 2021). In June 2020 Arkansas filed a similar suit. It said 385 Arkansans had bought about $60,524 of the product (AP, 18 June 2020).

Bakker's side was put by his lawyer, the former Missouri governor Jay Nixon. He said Bakker never claimed Silver Solution was a cure for Covid-19, that Bakker stopped offering it as soon as the federal warning letters arrived, and that Bakker was being unfairly targeted "by those who want to crush his ministry and force his Christian television program off the air" (AP, 24 June 2021).

The Missouri case ended in a consent judgment signed on 22 June 2021 by Stone County Circuit Judge Alan Blankenship. Bakker and Morningside agreed to $156,000 in restitution, including $90,000 still to be refunded, and were barred from selling Silver Solution "to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure any disease or illness". They admitted no wrongdoing. Their lawyer Derek Ankrom said the judgment "made no findings whatsoever that our clients violated any laws or misled any of their partners" (Courthouse News, 23 June 2021). The Arkansas case was still pending at that date.

So, fairly stated: Bakker was never found liable in the Silver Solution matter. He paid refunds and accepted a ban to end it. The broadcast itself, with its words and its price, is the evidence, and anyone can read the quotes above.

How did the money machine work?

Across forty years the method stayed recognisable. Four parts repeat.

• A gift that is really a price. PTL partners "gave" $1,000 and expected hotel nights in return. Silver Solution went to viewers who "contributed" $80 to $125, part of which went to the church (Courthouse News). Calling a purchase a gift makes it feel holy and blurs what you are owed.
• A promise that cannot be checked from your sofa. You could not count hotel rooms from Ohio. You cannot test a silver liquid against a virus in your kitchen.
• Urgency. "Only 25,000 partnerships." A pandemic spreading "around the globe". Both told the viewer to act before thinking.
• Fear of the future. In the 1980s it was missing out on the blessing. In the 2000s, on Bakker's own sets, it was the coming collapse, with buckets of food and survival gear for sale.

The last part should trouble Catholics most. Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour (Mark 13:32). Preparing for an emergency is ordinary prudence, and our Catholic guide to emergency preparedness sets it out calmly. Selling fear of the apocalypse to raise money for a ministry is a different thing. It turns the Second Coming into a sales funnel.

What is proven, what he said, and what is unknown?

Proven in court: the 1989 conviction on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy, upheld on appeal. The 1989 sentence, its reduction, and his 1994 parole.

Settled without a finding: the Missouri Silver Solution case. Bakker and Morningside paid $156,000 in restitution and accepted a ban, and admitted no wrongdoing.

His own words: his 1989 statement in court that he never intended to defraud anyone, his book I Was Wrong, and his lawyers' 2020 and 2021 statements that he never called Silver Solution a cure.

Unknown to us: what Morningside earned from its later products, how the outstanding Arkansas case ended, and the state of his soul. We do not guess at any of them.

Was Jim Bakker a false prophet?

People search this question in grief and in anger. The Catholic answer is careful on purpose.

Scripture gives the believer a duty and a test. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing," Jesus says, and "you will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15 to 16). John writes, "test the spirits to see whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). Peter warns that false teachers "in their greed will exploit you with false words" (2 Peter 2:3). Our pages on how to recognise false prophets and wolves in sheep's clothing work through those tests in full.

Applied to the record, the fruit is visible. A man preaching that giving brings God's blessing sold a blessing he could not deliver, and a court convicted him for it. Years later, a show he hosted offered a silver liquid for a gift while a guest said it could kill the virus everyone feared. Those appeals fail the test.

The Church stops there, and so do we. Judging teaching and conduct is required. Judging a soul is reserved to God. Bakker also did something rare: he wrote that he was wrong. Catholics pray for the dead, because "from the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1032). Praying for Jim Bakker and for the people his ministry hurt belong together.

Red flags you can check yourself

• The "gift" has a price. If a donation buys you a product, a room, a bottle or a blessing, it is a sale. Ask what you are owed and in writing.
• The numbers do not add up. Bakker sold 159,903 partnerships against a promised 25,000. Ask for the capacity, the audited accounts and the refund terms before you give.
• Health claims on a religious broadcast. No preacher, guest or "natural health expert" on a ministry show can stand in for your doctor. Check the FDA and FTC warning letter database for the product name.
• Fear plus a phone number. A pandemic, a collapse or the end of the world, followed immediately by a price. That pairing is the pitch.
• Accountability runs nowhere. A Catholic parish has a finance council (Code of Canon Law, canon 537) and answers to a bishop. Ask who audits the ministry asking for your money, and whether the answer is anyone.

What does the Church offer instead?

Everything those broadcasts sold, the Church gives freely. The sick are anointed because they are sick (James 5:14 to 15). The hungry are fed by parish pantries that ask nothing back. Readiness for Christ's return is built in Confession and at Mass, and it costs nothing. No Catholic sacrament is for sale. The Church condemns the buying and selling of spiritual things as simony (Catechism 2121), after Simon Magus, whom Peter told: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money" (Acts 8:20).

Giving is still good. Give to your parish, to the poor, to people you can see. Give where the books are open. And if someone on a screen ties a blessing to a price, change the channel and call your priest.

For the wider teaching behind those appeals, read the prosperity gospel and what the Bible actually says. For two other televangelists whose fundraising was exposed in public, see Peter Popoff and Robert Tilton.

Sources

• US Postal Inspection Service, "Heritage USA Fraud", history spotlight (uspis.gov).
• Associated Press via NPR, "Jim Bakker, who built 'PTL Club' televangelism empire, has died at 86", 6 October 2026.
• Reuters via The Guardian, "US televangelist Jim Bakker, ensnared in fraud and sex scandal, dies at 86", 6 October 2026.
• The Charlotte Observer, "5 things to know about Jim Bakker", 6 October 2026.
• NPR, "Missouri Sues Televangelist Jim Bakker For Selling Fake Coronavirus Cure", 11 March 2020.
• Associated Press via FOX6, "Televangelist Jim Bakker sued by second state over coronavirus treatment claims", 18 June 2020.
• Associated Press via Christianity Today, "Jim Bakker to Pay $156K Over COVID-19 Cure Claim", 24 June 2021.
• Courthouse News Service, "Televangelist to Pay $156,000 to Settle Case Over Fake Covid Cure", 23 June 2021.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Jim Bakker still alive?

No. Jim Bakker died on Monday, 5 October 2026, at the age of 86. His wife, Lori Bakker, announced the death in a statement, and the Associated Press reported it on 6 October 2026. The cause of death was not made public. He had suffered a stroke in 2020.

What did Jim Bakker do?

Jim Bakker sold "lifetime partnerships" in his Heritage USA resort on his PTL television show. For $1,000, a partner was promised three nights a year at the Grand Hotel for life. The US Postal Inspection Service says he told viewers he would accept 25,000 partners and sold 159,903. In 1989 a federal jury in Charlotte convicted him on all 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

How much money did Jim Bakker take?

Prosecutors said Bakker defrauded followers of $158 million and diverted $3.7 million to his own lifestyle, according to Reuters. The US Postal Inspection Service says the partnership scheme raised over $400 million between 1984 and 1987. These are the government's figures from the trial and its history of the case.

Did Jim Bakker go to prison?

Yes. Judge Robert Potter sentenced Bakker on 24 October 1989 to 45 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. A federal appeals court upheld the conviction but ordered a new sentence, which was later cut to eight years. He was released on parole in 1994 after nearly five years.

What was the Jim Bakker Silver Solution lawsuit?

In March 2020 Missouri sued Bakker and Morningside Church Productions, alleging that 11 episodes of The Jim Bakker Show offered Silver Solution as a coronavirus treatment for a contribution of $80 to $125. In June 2021 they settled: $156,000 in restitution and a ban on selling Silver Solution to treat any disease, with no admission of wrongdoing.

Was Jim Bakker a false prophet?

The record shows a man convicted of defrauding his viewers in 1989 who later wrote a book called I Was Wrong, and whose show in 2020 offered a silver product for a gift while a guest said it could eliminate coronavirus. Scripture judges teaching by its fruit (Matthew 7:15 to 20). His soul is for God to judge. His appeals failed the tests a Catholic is told to apply.

Did Jim Bakker repent?

Bakker told the court in 1989, "I have sinned. I have made mistakes. But never in my life did I intend to defraud anyone." After prison he wrote I Was Wrong, renouncing the prosperity gospel he had preached. He later returned to television and sold survival food and other products for donations. Only God sees the heart.

Test every appeal made in God's name before you send a cent. Catholic/Christian Pro is $49 once for lifetime access to in-depth Bible studies, audio devotionals and guided prayers, with no subscription and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Start today.