Televangelist Jim Bakker slapped with hefty penalty for peddling bogus coronavirus cure

Televangelist Jim Bakker was smacked with a hefty penalty for promoting "silver solution" as a potential cure for the coronavirus.

The state of Missouri had sued Bakker last year for marketing the colloidal silver solution to treat coronavirus early in the pandemic, promising the unapproved substance could cure that illness and others, and Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that his office had recovered $156,000 in restitution.

Schmitt's office also obtained a consent judgment against Bakker and his Morningside Church Productions prohibiting the televangelist from selling or advertise the product and repay customers who had bought "silver solution" from him.

Restitution checks will be mailed out to victims within 30 days of the judgment.

Bakker and self-styled "natural health expert" Sherrill Sellman peddled the solution early last year at a cost of $80 for four 4-ounce bottles.

The televangelist rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s with his heavily made-up wife Tammy Fae but fell from grace over a sex scandal, and later spent several years in prison for defrauding his flock for millions of dollars.