Televangelist, Son of Oral Roberts Accused of Spending Abuses

TULSA (AP) - A lawsuit that threatens a scandal at Oral Roberts University has at least one student looking to transfer.

The lawsuit by three former professors accuse ORU president Richard Roberts of illegal involvement in a local political campaign.

It also accuses Roberts of lavish spending of money from donors.

Roberts has said the lawsuit is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion.

ORU senior Cornell Cross the second says the allegations severely devalue the reputation of his degree and he's looking to transfer.

Cross says he's asked repeatedly to see the school's finances and has been told no. He says now he knows why.

The lawsuit accuses Roberts of using money for nearly a dozen home remodeling projects, of using ORU's jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas and of to buy a Mercedes and a Lexus for his wife Lindsay.

The wife is accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."

It also says ORU employees are regularly called to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework and the a stable of horses is kept for exclusive use by the Roberts' children.

ORU regents say an investigation is under way into the allegations.