Oral Roberts University has long been controversial, ever since God was going to “call him home.” Now his son and new head of the university is involved in a raging scandal involving his family and has said, as with his father, God has intervened to tell him to deny everything.
At issue is how the finances of this university have allegedly been used to fund extravagant lifestyles and possibly seedy pleasures of the family. Roberts is accused of using university resources to illegally to help a political campaign, send his daughter on a trip to the Bahamas, fund his wife penchant for late night chats with underage boys, and other allegations. The university claims that the three professors are disgruntled and revengeful. The lawsuit could threaten not just the finances but the non-for-profit status of the university. According to the article below, the allegations include:
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
– A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
– Mrs. Roberts – who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU’s “first lady” on the university’s Web site – frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to “underage males who had been provided phones at university expense.”
– The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an “evangelistic function of the president.”
– Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico’s clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, “As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off.” The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
– Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors.
– University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts’ home to do the daughters’ homework.
– The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts’ children.
– The Roberts’ home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.
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