Ex-Ministries man gets plea agreement
A former Greater Ministries International worker cooperates with prosecutors over fraud charges and a company that made similar promises.
The Tampa Tribune, February 15, 1999
By Michael Fechter
TAMPA - Federal prosecutors have a plea agreement with a former worker at a Tampa ministry suspected of running a lucrative international financial scam.
Jonathan Strawder agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and cooperate with federal investigators, according to records made public Friday. While references to cooperation are standard in plea agreements, the deal is signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mosakowski.
He is the lead prosecutor investigating Greater Ministries International. The group's money-doubling financial program is the focus of an ongoing criminal investigation and state regulatory efforts in Ohio, California and Pennsylvania.
Greater Ministries attorney Al Cunningham could not be reached for comment Friday.
Strawder used to work with Greater Ministries. His uncle is an elder there and his father has long-term connections to it.
He made a similar plea agreement with state prosecutors Dec. 15 on grand theft and securities fraud charges.
From May 1997 through January 1998, Strawder ran Sovereign Ministries International outside Orlando. Like Greater Ministries, Sovereign promised to double a person's money through equally sized monthly payments.
The program took in more than $12 million from 2,100 people.
``Clearly, it's a spinoff'' of Greater Ministries, Strawder's attorney, Joel Hirschhorn, said after Strawder turned himself in to state officials in December.
Strawder invested less than half the money, the federal plea agreement said. No investment netted a profit.
Instead, the money was part of Ponzi scheme in which Strawder used money from new investors to pay old ones to make it look as though the touted investments were paying off, the information said.
Of the $13 million invested, $1.2 million went to Strawder and other associates as commission. He used the money to buy cars, motorcycles and other luxury items.
Strawder created the program less than two months after a state appellate court ruled that money collected by the Greater Ministries program was not a financial security subject to state regulation, but a religious donation.
Sovereign Ministries sign-up sheets included nearly identical language to Greater Ministries documents. The money wasn't an investment, but a gift to the ministry, the records said.
That was merely an ``attempt to mislead and evade the jurisdiction of state regulatory authorities,'' an information filed with the plea agreement in federal court said.
Greater Ministries claims to have an interest in 200 gold and diamond mines. They have offered specific information about just one effort, a Liberian operation that has yet to net profits.
