TULSA, Okla. - Some money that flowed into Oral Roberts Ministries earmarked by donors for scholarships or other campus needs was instead placed in an "unmarked, miscellaneous" account shared by both the ministry and Oral Roberts University, a former ministry employee told The Associated Press.
The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, worked in a department that processed thousands of dollars a day.
She said there was "no consistency, rhyme or reason" for which donations went into the unmarked account "- be it checks written to the university or the ministry -" and which went to the actual departments they were set aside for by the donors.
Because the department handled so much money, she said it would be impossible to determine how much of it was diverted into the unmarked account.
Her description of the account appears to corroborate some claims by a former ORU accountant, who alleges in a wrongful termination lawsuit he had "limited access to unrestricted accounts" and discovered one account used to "funnel exceedingly large sums of money through the university each month that was not used for any legitimate university purpose."
The former accountant, Trent Huddleston, also alleges former university president Richard Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, "co-mingled" and spent university and ministry money.
The Robertses have repeatedly denied wrongdoing. ORU spokesman Jeremy Burton said Wednesday the school was "unaware of this anonymous and apparently unfounded accusation."
"Due to the absence of any facts regarding the alleged transaction and the gag order entered in pending litigation, ORU is unable to comment further," said Burton, referring to a judge's ruling barring all parties from discussing the case outside of court.
The allegations by the former employee would amount to "a huge no-no" for any nonprofit organization, said Ole Anthony, whose Dallas-based Trinity Foundation investigates and reports on fraud in religious ministries and probed Oral Roberts Ministries in the early 1990s.
"To raise money for a purpose and then not use the money for that purpose, many times this is where ministries have gotten in most trouble in the past years with the IRS," Anthony said. "It's just another example of how ministries need real oversight."
The former employee, who was also a student at ORU, worked for the ministry for about four months in 2006. Huddleston, the accountant, also worked at ORU during this time, records indicate.
Soon after she began her job, the former ministry employee said she noticed "red flags."
She described handling a $500 donation with a letter earmarking the money for "a student who couldn't otherwise go to ORU," that ended up in the unmarked account.
"It just broke my heart," she said. "Money earmarked for specific university (departments) went into an unmarked fund.
"So, it's getting juggled around quite a bit," she said.
She says she went to her supervisors to report the apparent irregularities, but was met with resistance.
"(I was) strong-armed, intimidated," she said. "I was told: this is the way things work, if you don't like the way it works, maybe this isn't the place for you."
She later resigned and left the school.
"As a student employee, it was quite disconcerting," she said. "If all of this money is coming in, I thought there's got to be some money to help keep me here." Continue >>
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As an ORU grad, this news is hardly surprising.....but God is good and ORU has a new beginning and her best days are yet to come.
The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence,â
Whatever happened to believing one is innocent until proven guilty. It's great that everyone wants to be in the "I told you so" position, so let's not jump to conclusions based on things others tell us.
Richard and Lidsay Roberts preached prosperity and they
were not satisfied with their thirst for money, so they
took shortcuts to reach the goal. If they did this format of operation in a non-religious corporation, the
payday would have been so terrible. Due to the selfishness of these people and a whole lot of other
electronic preachers, the believers everywhere in the
world are being humiliated. Some of these prosperity preachers
must be penalized with an orange vest given to state
prisoners to wear while working on the road side; and
make them work on the road side to collect trash for
their sins of deception. They did it willingly and
deliberately, so we need not have to excuse them anymore.
Sad to say this is not news to many that live in Tulsa. A friend of mine has a good friend that said that the funds that were raised to help the students were going to other things. I do not know if she said that they were going to an unmarked account or not.
Another friend of mine contributed to the reconstruction of the Student Center. It came out last year that the funds did not go toward it. The lot remains empty as of a few months ago when I was on campus. I do not know if that project has restarted again since Mart Green became the head of ORU. The mood is a whole lot better at the school, the first time in decades. Employees have received raises and are allowed to participate in the ins and outs of campus life, even input into cirriculum. I'm grateful for the changes which would never have occurred while Richard Roberts was at the helm.
Richard and his wife need to have charges against them for fraud. They are lying to people every day in the name of Jesus that they have some sort of power from Jesus that we don't have. That with the right amount of money, they can be blessed by God. Why would anybody be shocked by this. His father told millions of people that God would kill him if he didn't raise 8 million dollars. Why are we suprised that his son wouldn't do the same, just in a different way.