Friday, February 08, 2008

Oral Roberts University May Improperly Funneled $1Billion a Year

The previously alleged financial improprieties at Oral Roberts University pale in comparison to the newest allegations that indicate that perhaps a billion dollars or more per year may have been laundered through the finances of the university. Unfortuantely, based on the other stories that have been reported to date, I would not be surprised if the allegations were true. Yet another example of the corrupt practices of the supposedly holier than thou set at ORU. Here are some highlights from Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080208/ap_on_re_us/oral_roberts_scandal;_ylt=AvdtTbb5uKN4oHSLsRvrLhME1vAI):


TULSA, Okla. - 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.


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.

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