More than $1 BILLION annually was funneled through Oral Roberts U, lawsuit claims

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080207_1__Aform10720

A former Oral Roberts University accountant revised his lawsuit on Thursday to allege that more than $1 billion annually was funneled through the university, possibly to individual regents.

"It appears that many of the former board members were actual participants in the funneling of money through the university for their own eventual personal use, and thus, the foxes were watching the hen house," says former accountant Trent Huddleston's lawsuit.

ORU spokesman Jeremy Burton said, "The allegations of inappropriately funneling money through accounts as alleged by the plaintiff have no basis in fact."

Huddleston's attorney Gary Richardson said Huddleston had seen the account
when he worked at ORU, between July 2006 and October 2007. In the lawsuit, Huddleston claims he was wrongfully fired because ORU, Oral Roberts Ministries and their leaders fears he would talk about the alleged "'unrestricted' account" and because he regularly questioned expenses.

Richardson said he received confirmation about the alleged unrestricted account from a person who should know. Until he received confirmation, he agreed that funneling of $1 billion seemed implausible.

[MissWaverly]

1. Aw, money laundering, I have been thinking about this a lot

faith based initiatives, tax dollars cycled into churches and back into campaigns, churches serving as campaign stops and gathering money for candidates with faith fund drives, yes, I think there is little oversight and much opportunity for abuse.

[BearSquirrel2]

2. 501(c)3 .... bye, bye ...

Ooohhh, on top of fraud charges for the regents involved, hopefully Oral Roberts University will say BYE-BYE to their 501(c)3 status if it is found that this is a systemic problem.

If all the regents are "in the know", especially Bob Roberts, exactly who would they hand the 501(c)3 over to that is not equally corrupt. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E3D61F38F933A25755C0A964948260>Not the other Roberts boy. Not Oral's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton_Pearson>Black Son.

Oh no. What is a regulator to do?

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Will they definitely lose their rating? Or can the University just cut off

the offending appendages?

[BearSquirrel2]

8. I have no idea ...

I have no idea, but it doesn't seem to be a "bad apple" situation. Sounds like the whole barrel is rotten. If they were diverting funds that is even worse. Remember that Ralph Reed ended up loosing 501(c)3 status for the Christian Coalition.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Did Ralph Reed ever serve time for what he did?

I think that here, is the great disconnect. There just seems to be crimes, crimes commited by what I call Rotary roques, that just seem to be of little consequences to the people that commit them, even though they create great harm in the greater community.

[momster]

3. Robertson Worked for Charles Taylor

It's pretty clear that when Robertson was running diamonds for Taylor, he'd sell them in the West and get nice clean money which was then channeled back to Taylor, though not without plenty sticking to Robertson's dirty fingers. I believe this is why Robertson tied himself so tightly to Ronald Reagan...so he'd be protected from the IRS.

[AP]

6. I think you've mixed up your TV evangelist "robers" -- Pat Robertson is not Oral Roberts

Pat Robertson -- 700 Club -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_700_Club

Oral Roberts -- ORU -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts_University

Both have close connections to the RNC though.

[momster]

7. My point?

is that all the tv preachers are dirty dogs who deserved investigation into the origins of their millions and what they do with those dollars -- Oral Roberts is Pat Robertson is Bennie Hinn is....on and on right back to the money lenders in the Temple.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. HOLY SHIT! I mean, this is just incredible.

Even to me, and that says something.

[WinkyDink]

10. This number is beyond staggering. WTH do these criminals DO with this lucre??

Seriously? Are they all building Riviera villas and buying mega-yachts??

One thing these RELIGIOUS types are not doing is helping the poor and hungry.