Pennsylvania goes after Tampa church

Pennsylvania officials want Tampa-based Greater Ministries International found in contempt of court.

The Tampa Tribune, December 3, 1998
By Michael Fechter

Greater Ministries International Church should be fined and its leader jailed for flagrant violations of a state injunction barring the group from financial activity there, Pennsylvania Attorney General D. Michael Fisher said in court papers filed Wednesday.

The state considers Greater Ministries' financial program, ``Faith Promises,'' to be an unregistered security and issued cease- and-desist orders barring its promotion in 1995 and 1996. The program is based on biblical references and purports to double a person's money in 17 months or less.

Pennsylvania authorities say the organization violated a court injunction by sending out two mailings and holding a rally in Lebanon, Pa., that solicited funds.

A federal criminal investigation continues into the program to determine whether it is a Ponzi scheme. The organization's headquarters is in Tampa.

Ministries founder Gerald Payne could not be reached for comment on Pennsylvania's action. Al Cunningham, a California lawyer who said he is Greater Ministries' new general counsel, said the group would fight the contempt charge and the injunction on First Amendment religious freedom grounds.

Payne told people at the Lebanon meeting that he had destroyed computer records in defiance of a subpoena and is refusing to cooperate with criminal investigations by the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa.

The program has tens of thousands of participants nationally and abroad with hundreds of millions of dollars committed.

A Pennsylvania judge signed a preliminary injunction against the ministries Nov. 2 after state officials argued that Greater Ministries officials repeatedly ignored their cease-and-desist orders.

If the contempt order is signed, Greater Ministries would be fined $500 per violation per day until Payne appeared in state court and agreed to abide by the injunction. He would also be forced to show accounting records for any Pennsylvania-based money the group received since the Nov. 2 order and to refund all money taken in since that date.

Greater Ministries would be fined $5,000 for each Pennsylvanian who received the November mailings, and Payne, his wife, Betty, and Ministries representatives Don and Brenda Hall would be fined $5,000. An arrest warrant for Payne would be issued if the contempt citation was ignored.

Faith Promise participants received two mailings after the Nov. 2 injunction. The letters, from Greater Joy and Solid Foundation ministries, specifically refer to Greater Ministries and the Faith Promise program. Similar in tone, each contained the phrase ``the gifting ministry is still the same.''

Together, they are ``patent offers or solicitations for Pennsylvania residents to continue to send money and participate in Greater's `Faith Promise Plan,' '' the state's petition said.

When Greater Ministries met with more than 800 people Nov. 21, officials promoted the The Health Benevolence Christian Fellowship. The fellowship accepts monthly payments, which can be used to buy supplies from the group's Herbal Research Center or as donations to others or can be rolled into the Faith Promise program.

Pennsylvania considers that to be a pyramid scheme.