Ministries may buy out mine partner
Greater Ministries continues limited operations while seven officials await trial on money-laundering and mail fraud charges.
The Tampa Tribune, April 26, 1999
By Michael Fechter
TAMPA - Greater Ministries International may buy out its Liberian mining partner despite going six months without paying investors and a judge's admonition against business dealings.
Seven Greater Ministries officials were arrested last month and charged in a 20-count federal grand jury indictment with conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud. The Tampa-based ministry offers a money-doubling financial program likely worth tens of millions of dollars. Prosecutors call it a Ponzi scheme.
Greater Ministries contends it had a Liberian gold mining venture with at least $1 million invested in equipment and transport. In a Ponzi, or pyramid scheme, money from recent investors pays earlier investors; claims of profit from other business deals are concocted.
The Liberian operation sits atop one of West Africa's most vast untapped reserves, Greater Ministries officials said, estimating its potential at $40 billion.
Liberian officials briefly placed Greater Ministries assets there in a protective custody earlier this month. The move was in response to a letter faxed to the Liberian government from the United States, said Liberian Justice Minister Eddington Varmah.
``It came from Gerald Payne,'' Varmah said. ``He wrote a letter to the government saying they were in the process of buying out the other party.''
Payne, the founder and president of Greater Ministries, was among those indicted last month.
U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III rejected prosecutors' requests that Payne be held without bond pending trial. But in releasing Payne, McCoun ordered that he ``not engage in any activity in support of [the] `gifting' program as described in the indictment,'' court records show.
Payne sent the letter but isn't involved in any negotiations, said Barbara Ketay, a Greater Ministries' legal associate. ``Gerald is absolutely dormant,'' she said. ``He asked the president to protect our equipment. Other than that, I don't know anything.''
Greater Ministries touts the Liberian mining operation as one of the ways it finances the money- doubling Faith Promises program. Its Web page cites the Liberian program as evidence of ``how God is providing and filling the storehouse for you.''
Last fall, participants in the Greater program began receiving certificates said to be redeemable for gold, silver or cash at the Greater Church Storehouse after a Colorado bank collapsed and the ministry lost an alleged $20 million in uninsured deposits.
Greater has not been able to pay investors since October. A civil suit filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court earlier this month claims the group hasn't made its $41,800 mortgage payment since February.
General talks about a buyout are ongoing, said South African businessman Niko Shefer, who claims to be the majority partner in the Liberian operation.
He said he is open to selling and plans to meet soon with Greater Ministries representatives.
Meanwhile, Gerald and Betty Payne and co-defendant Don Hall won court approval to attend Greater Ministries' annual missionary conference next week in Owensboro, Ky. About 300 people are expected for the conference at the Executive Inn Hotel and Convention Center, owned by the ministries' development arm.
