Roberts denies money-funneling claims
BY APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
Saturday, February 09, 2008
2/09/08 at 4:00 AM
The latest on this story: ORU seeks dismissal of suit
Former Oral Roberts University President Richard
Roberts said Friday that he is
"astounded" at the "ludicrous" allegation, made in a
court filing Thursday, that
more than $1 billion was funneled annually through ORU.
His attorneys issued a
statement the day after former ORU accountant Trent
Huddleston revised his lawsuit against the university and
its leaders to make that allegation and claim that the
money might have gone to
former ORU regents.
Huddleston claims that he
wrongfully lost his job partly
because ORU leaders feared
that he would talk about the
alleged account used for funneling money, his lawsuit
says.
The statement says, "It is
inconceivable to Dr. Roberts
that any such large-scale financial activity ever took
place at ORU or" the Oral
Roberts Evangelistic Association.
The statement claims that
Huddleston and his attorney,
Gary Richardson, made the
allegation to gain publicity.
In a telephone interview,
Richardson said ORU and its
leaders have claimed all along
that allegations first made in
another of Richardson's lawsuits -- filed by three former
professors -- were for publicity, "and yet, tremendous
change has been happening."
Roberts resigned as president in November, and ORU's
former governing board was
replaced by a new board of
trustees this month.
The Green family, which
has given $70 million to ORU
since late November, is requiring that ORU adopt
shared governance, in which
trustees, the president and
faculty have defined roles and
input into decisions.
Richardson also said, in response to Roberts' statement:
"Tell them to release the audit. Find out whether it's a
publicity stunt or not."
ORU's former board of regents hired an outside law
firm last year to audit ORU's
finances and more after the
former professors sued ORU
and its leaders. They alleged
in their lawsuit that Roberts
and his family had misused
ORU and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association money.
ORU has not released that
audit, and a spokesman again
declined to do so Friday.
Roberts has denied all allegations in the professors' lawsuit, and his statement Friday
said he denies all allegations
in Huddleston's lawsuit.
Neither Roberts nor the
other defendants have been
served with the lawsuit, reports show, so Roberts has
not had an opportunity to file
a legal response to Huddleston's claims.
Roberts, Richards and others involved in the professors'
lawsuit are not allowed to talk
about that suit outside of
court, but no gag order exists
in Huddleston's suit.
April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com
