You may recall the stories about Oral Roberts University former president, Richard Roberts, and his scandalous behavior. I wrote about it here. He resigned (because God told him to) but displayed no remorse and denied any wrongdoing. Check out this story from the AP:
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A former senior accountant at Oral Roberts University alleges that more than $1 billion annually was inappropriately funneled through the school.
Trent Huddleston claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he discovered an “unrestricted” account used to funnel “unusually large” sums of money through the university each month - which would exceed $1 billion on an annual basis - that wasn’t used for any legitimate university purpose.
University spokesman Jeremy Burton dismissed any wrongdoing, saying the allegations had “no basis in fact.” John Tucker, an attorney for the university, said the petition appeared to be “grounded in fantasy.”
Huddleston, who was hired in 2006 and spent 15 months at the school, said he was discharged because school officials feared he would reveal that the account existed.
Named as defendants are Richard Roberts, the school’s former president, and his wife, Lindsay, along with former regents.
Huddleston’s lawsuit, the latest to hit the scandal-plagued university, amended a complaint he filed in late November against ORU.
The initial complaint alleged Huddleston was ordered to help Richard and Lindsay Roberts “cook the books” by hiding improper and illegal financial wrongdoing from authorities and the public.
It also claimed that he was directed against his will to falsely list thousands of dollars as expenses rather than assets - which were spent remodeling the home of Richard and Lindsay Roberts - in order to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.
Roberts resigned as president days after Huddleston’s lawsuit was filed. He and his wife have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Burton said the new trustees board was “committed to resolving outstanding litigation against the university brought under the former administration.”
That’s an awful lot of money to steal. No wonder Mrs. Roberts could afford to spend $40K at year at Chico’s. I do wonder how the people who paid tuition to ORU and contributed in other ways feel about their money being stolen to remodel the Roberts’ home, buy nice clothes, travel, etc. This is the same thinking displayed by Mike Huckabee, though in the Roberts case writ large.
To believe in the prosperity gospel, as many evangelicals do, is to believe in corruption.
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Luke 16:13
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