Seven years after collecting millions in compensation for his kidnapping by Islamic militants, journalist Terry Anderson has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in a federal court in Kentucky.

Anderson, a former Associated Press foreign correspondent and U.S. Marine who taught at Ohio University in Athens and ran unsuccessfully for the Ohio Senate in 2004, says he owes nearly $1.9 million to creditors.

He owns or co-owns failed businesses in Athens, including the Blue Gator, a restaurant and blues bar. He also owns a restaurant on St. Thomas in the Caribbean, as well as a charter-boat business, both of which are defunct, according to documents filed on Nov. 3 in bankruptcy court in Lexington, Ky.

Hezbollah militants abducted Anderson in Beirut in 1985 and held him for nearly seven years. After his release, he sued the Iranian government in federal court, and in 2002, he won a settlement reportedly worth about $26 million.

He is working as a visiting journalism lecturer at the University of Kentucky.

Anderson declined to comment on his bankruptcy filing.

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