Televangelist Jim Bakker ordered to pay R2.2 million for touting fake Covid cure, ‘Silver Solution’ – Business Insider South Africa
Televangelist Jim Bakker advertised the “Silver Solution,” falsely claiming that it could be used to cure COVID.
- Televangelist Jim Bakker and his church were ordered to pay $156,000 (R2.2 million) in restitution for selling a fake Covid cure.
- Bakker advertised a supplement called “Silver Solution” last year that he falsely claimed could prevent Covid.
- It contains colloidal silver, which health authorities say is dangerous to one’s health.
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Missouri televangelist Jim Bakker was ordered to pay $156,000 (R2.2 million) in restitution to the viewers of his religious talk show. This was for touting a fake Covid cure called the “Silver Solution” that contained colloidal silver, an ingredient which health authorities warn can be toxic and cause permanent skin discolouration.
The TV preacher and his guest Sherill Sellmanclaimed last February on the Jim Bakker Show that the “Silver Solution,” which comes in liquid bottles and gel tubes, could “kill” and “deactivate” the Covid virus within 12 hours.
During the show, Bakker advertised the solution in a $125 (R1,766) starter kit. Per local Missouri news outlet Riverfront Times, Bakker’s website also listed a case of 12 bottles for “$300 (R4,238) or more.”
Per the settlement judgment seen by Insider, TV preacher Jim Bakker and his church, the Jim Bakker Show Ministry, were also barred from selling the Silver Solution to “diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure any disease or illness.”
The $156,000 (R2.2 million) in restitution includes $90,000 (R1.3 million) in refunds that Bakker and his church have already coughed up. The sum of money will go towards refunding viewers who bought the “Silver Solution” between February 12 and March 10 last year, per a news release from the office of Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
The Missouri government filed their lawsuit against Bakker last March for his misrepresentations on the “Silver Solution.” The state government also requested a permanent injunction to stop Bakker from selling the fake cure.
Additionally, the US Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission named the Jim Bakker Show in a March 9 statement last year, warning it to stop selling fraudulent products and unapproved drugs that falsely claim to treat or prevent Covid.
Bakker is known for being a famous televangelist in the 1980s, along with his then-wife, Tammy Faye Bakker. According to the New York Times, Bakker was convicted in 1989 of 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy, for defrauding his followers of $158 million (R2.2 billion). He was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000, but was paroled in 1994 after serving just over five years.
