A court-appointed trustee overseeing the sale of Jim Bakker's bankrupt empire today asked a judge to approve a $7 million bid by a California minister for the PTL television network. Morris Cerullo, head of Worldwide Evangelism Inc. of San Diego, agreed to purchase PTL's remaining assets if he could be guaranteed the cable network, trustee Dennis Shedd told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thurmond Bishop. Cerullo, 58, an Assemblies of God pastor, has an organization with branches in Great Britain, Canada, Israel and Zimbabwe. In 1978, he unveiled plans for a $100 million ``world outreach center'' in San Diego, but unlike Bakker's Heritage USA complex 10 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., it never materialized. Earlier this month, evangelist Oral Roberts signed a $6.45 million contract that gave him the right to buy the cable network unless someone else bid more or agreed to buy all of PTL's assets as a package deal. In urging Bishop to approve the sale of the network to Cerullo, Shedd did not mention whether Cerullo had signed a contract for other PTL assets. The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported today that Cerullo signed a $52 million contract Wednesday that included Heritage USA, PTL's former religious theme park and retreat in Fort Mill. Also Wednesday, Cerullo deposited $7 million in an escrow account for the network, said Brad Leggett, an attorney representing Shedd. Shedd has said that any offer he accepts must be paid in full at the time of the sale, not paid over time. It was not clear whether the reported $52 million price included the $7 million for the television network. Shedd would not answer questions during a recess called so he could confer with attorneys. Cable television's Home Box Office had asked the Bankruptcy Court to block Shedd's deal with Roberts, because it doubted Roberts could make the $242,000 monthly payments for the use of a satellite HBO provides for PTL. PTL has been in bankruptcy proceedings since June 1987, three months after Bakker resigned in the sex-and-money scandal that led up to his 45-year federal prison term for fraud and conspiracy. Although the PTL network still carries other evangelists' taped programs, Heritage USA, where Bakker had his studios and church, has been closed since September. The 500-acre retreat near Fort Mill also has five restaurants, a $10 million water park and two 500-room hotels, one of them unfinished. It includes about 1,700 undeveloped acres. Last year, Toronto businessman Stephen Mernick failed to close on a $65 million deal to buy PTL with bank financing. The lenders wanted title insurance for Heritage USA, and Mernick could not obtain it because of a Catawba Indian lawsuit claiming 144,000 acres of land, including the Heritage USA site, was illegally sold to the state in 1840.
