Pennsylvania judge fines Greater Ministries millions
The Tampa Tribune, March 9, 1999
By Michael Fechter
Tampa-based Greater Ministries International receives a whopping fine for contempt of a Pennsylvania court order.
A $6.4 million fine issued Monday by a Pennsylvania judge could lead state officials to try seizing Greater Ministries International Church's Tampa headquarters.
Pennsylvania officials promise aggressive pursuit of the money if the ruling survives expected appeals. They will try to seize the personal homes and cars of Greater Ministries leaders, the group's headquarters and other properties.
Commonwealth Judge Eunice Ross chose not to jail founder and President Gerald Payne, which she threatened to do if he failed to appear in court Monday to promise to abide by a previous injunction.
Greater Ministries attorney Al Cunningham said Payne was in the African nation of Liberia Monday, where the group says it is engaged in diamond and gold mining.
Mining and unspecified international trading are how Greater Ministries offers to double a participant's money in 17 months or less.
Pennsylvania issued its first cease-and-desist order against Greater Ministries in 1995, saying the group's money-doubling financial program is, at best, an unregistered security. Officials suspect it is a Ponzi scheme - a fraud in which money from new investors pays unrealistic interest to earlier investors.
During a TV interview that aired in Pennsylvania in February, Payne and Greater Ministries Pastor Don Hall claimed to have 100,000 participants who have invested $500 million.
Pennsylvania regulators won a temporary injunction barring virtually all financial activity in the state in November after Greater Ministries continued to promote the program despite the cease-and-desist orders.
On Jan. 21, Pennsylvania won the contempt order after Greater Ministries attracted more than 800 people to a meeting in Lancaster County and aired a series of TV programs promoting the financial program.
The fine issued Monday grows $2,000 a day until Greater Ministries clears itself of contempt by documenting refunds to Pennsylvania residents received since November and by having Payne appear in court promising to comply with a ban on financial activity in the state.
Church doctrine will keep Greater Ministries from following state orders, and the group's First Amendment rights justify that, Cunningham said.
``You simply can't tax God,'' Cunningham said.
Ross said she ``has the greatest respect for the First Amendment, and I would never interfere with anyone's religious beliefs.'' But because people give Greater Ministries money in hopes they will receive double the amount back, church representatives are nothing more than ``securities salesmen,'' the judge said.
Cunningham promised to appeal.
Greater Ministries lost $20 million last summer when Colorado regulators and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shut down Best Bank in Boulder for insolvency. Payments to Greater Ministries' followers quickly dried up.
Along the way, Greater Ministries bought its headquarters building in an old Sulphur Springs bank for $1.5 million in 1995. The property is appraised by the county at nearly $600,000.
The group's leaders have deeded their homes to Greater Ministries, and the group owns Kentucky's second-largest hotel, paying $7 million for the Executive Inn in Owensboro in 1997.
During the Pennsylvania TV program in February - featured on Greater Ministries' Web page - Payne and Hall tried to assuage concerns about the lack of payments and the state action.
``I don't care what the attorney general does or any other high official,'' Hall said on the video. ``God has things in control here and God's going to have the victory over all of it.''
