Problems growing for Greater Ministries

The organization's multimillion- dollar financial program shows more signs of strain.

The Tampa Tribune, January 11, 1998
By Michael Fechter

TAMPA - ``God,'' writes a leader for Tampa-based Greater Ministries International, ``is not locked into a set pattern.''

For Greater Ministries, which touted what it calls a money-doubling program, that's a change in divine policies.

Greater promised monthly payments as part of its ``Faith Promises'' program, which cited biblical passages as part of its claims. It boasted of an unblemished record of payments, which it considers gifts, that would double an investor's money in 17 months.

``Faith Promises'' has tens of thousands of participants throughout the country and abroad, and organizers boast it is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a Dec. 14 letter to participants, financial representative David Whitfield said Greater Ministries is enduring a ``season of testing'' that means ``we will no longer be blessing on a monthly basis ... and we will give as God blesses us.''

The ``season of testing'' is coming from security officials in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania who have active orders barring the program's promotion. They maintain it is an illegal security, not a religious donation.

And a federal grand jury is investigating whether Greater Ministries is running a Ponzi scheme in which longer-term participants are paid with money coming in from newer people.

The monthly payments stopped last summer. The steady flow of money ceased after Greater Ministries lost $20 million when Colorado bank officials and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shut down Best Bank, in Boulder, Colo., for insolvency.

Whitfield's letter is the group's most extensive report about the depth of loss resulting from the bank collapse and increasing scrutiny from regulators and law enforcement agencies.

Whitfield and other Greater Ministries officials could not be reached for comment.

Soon after the bank collapse, Greater Ministries issued a letter saying their funds had been illegally seized, announced that they would begin operating on a strictly cash basis, and advised their followers to ``get out of the world's banking system as quickly as possible.'' They urged people to empty their bank accounts, and cash out certificates of deposit ``before the computer meltdown'' coming in 2000.

Greater Ministries has had other problems recently as well.

A Bakersfield, Calif., couple who had been promoting ``Faith Promises'' were arrested on charges of selling unregistered securities and entered no contest pleas last month. Pennsylvania won a preliminary injunction in October restricting the group's activities there. And Pennsylvania authorities have scheduled a contempt hearing for Jan. 20 to consider whether Greater Ministries violated that injunction at a meeting there in November.

Back in Florida, one of the group's leaders has been ordered to stay away from an elderly Polk County woman after her relatives told a judge they feared her life's savings were in jeopardy.

Polk Circuit Judge Charles Davis has frozen a trust and ordered a permanent guardian for Florence Means, an 88-year-old Lakeland woman who invested $200,000 with Jack C. Hudson, a Greater Ministries trust officer, and his wife Sandra L. Hudson.

One of Florence Means' nieces won the court-appointed guardian last month after telling the court she feared her aunt's assets were at risk. Declared mentally incompetent, Means lives in a Lakeland adult living center.

The niece, Karen Farris of Louisville, Ky., declined to comment.

``Sandra L. Hudson is inordinately interested in maintaining control of Mrs. Means' assets'' Lakeland attorney Barbara Mathews wrote in a petition for an emergency temporary guardian in October. Davis signed the emergency order and later appointed a permanent guardian for Means.

Means is ``very susceptible to persuasion, very much so,'' her court-appointed attorney Roberta Creighton said during a guardianship hearing.

The Hudsons' lawyer, Paul Johnson, said the couple care about Means, are concerned for her welfare and are pleased to see the guardian appointed.

Sandra Hudson became Means' health care guardian in January 1996, less than two months after first meeting her.

Means fell while living in a mobile home last year and was injured. Jack Hudson found her, and helped arrange for her medical care. She soon moved to an adult care facility, according to court records.

Those records also show the Hudsons engaged in a series of investments with Means' money but leave unclear where the profits went.

Among the investments:

• A $50,000 security in a Pinellas County development called Tides Village Ltd.
• A $55,000 wire transfer signed by Sandra Hudson to Swiss America Bank Ltd. in St. Johns, Antigua, for a development called Coos Bay.
• A trust set up for Means' assets with Sandra Hudson and Florence Means listed as partners.
• A $15,000 check to Greater Ministries from Means.

Records also show that Jack Hudson has custody of gold and silver coins Means used to keep in her mobile home. The metals are kept in a safe at Greater Ministries, according to the court file.

Farris, who asked the court to make her guardian for her aunt, has no qualifications to control her aunt's assets and had only met Means a few times in her life, Johnson said.

``I think justice is done,'' he said. ``The Hudsons got nothing out of it except the feeling of goodwill that Mrs. Means' assets will be protected. They care for her.''

They also received about $50,000 from Means to help build a new house in Lakeland, which Sandra Hudson said in a deposition was a loan from Means that the elderly woman later told them was a gift.

And the couple may stand to gain 40 percent of Means's estate upon her death. While Judge Davis signed an order blocking the Hudsons from acting as trust partners, the status of the trust itself is unclear. Means' will, attached to the trust in court records, leaves 20 percent of her estate to Jack Hudson and 20 percent to Sandra Hudson.

Greater Ministries records show Hudson worked in a trust program as far back as July 1995. His name appears on trust documents with former Ministries elder Patrick Henry Talbert.

Talbert is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 8 for taking $280,000 from a dozen Floridians - many in their 80s.

Greater Ministries says Talbert is no longer an elder.