School Questions Cerullo’s Bid for Satellite Network

Officials of Oral Roberts University are predicting that evangelist Morris Cerullo, who beat them in a bid to purchase the PTL satellite network, will not be able to complete the deal.

The trustee for the defunct PTL ministries originally accepted the university’s $6-million purchase price for the Inspirational Network. But on May 30, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbia, S.C., approved a bid from Cerullo after the San Diego evangelist put $7 million in an escrow account and signed a contract to buy all assets at PTL’s Heritage USA complex near Ft. Mill, S.C.

But Richard Roberts, executive vice president of the university and the son of its founder, Oral Roberts, said he believes the full $52 million purchase will never take place.

Roberts noted that under the terms of the contract, Cerullo will not be required to complete the purchase of the 2,600 acres of land if he is unable to obtain a clear title to the property.

The land is part of an unsettled claim by the Catawba Indians, who have filed suit contending that 144,000 acres of the property was sold illegally to the state of South Carolina in 1840. That claim led Canadian real estate developer Stephen Mernick to drop his $65 million bid to purchase Heritage USA in 1988.

Richard Roberts said the sale was particularly upsetting to Oral Roberts University because his father had discussed his plan to purchase PTL in March in Cerullo’s living room. Cerullo is a trustee of Oral Roberts Charismatic Bible Ministries.

“My dad told him at length what we were planning to do with the network, and Morris said, ‘I’d love to help you get it,’ ” Richard Roberts said.

No one from Cerullo’s organization was available for comment.