Greater Ministries International (GMI) was an Evangelical Christian ministry based in Tampa, Florida, that operated a religious investment program that federal authorities later prosecuted as a large-scale affinity fraud. The ministry was founded in 1993 by Gerald Payne, a contractor who had previously served time in prison for lying to a grand jury.
Payne developed GMI with James Maher and Haywood “Don” Hall. The organization promoted a faith-based investment program in which participants were told that God would double their financial “blessings” within 17 months or less. Promoters cited the Gospel of Luke in support of the promised returns.
Between 1993 and 1999, GMI received an estimated $450 million to $500 million from as many as 80,000 participants. Although the organization presented itself as a charitable church that operated homeless shelters and rehabilitation programs, its Tampa headquarters contained 14 safes, two vaults, and a dedicated room for counting cash.
GMI used money from newer participants to make payments to earlier participants while representing the funds as investments in African gold and diamond mines, precious metals, and other ventures. The operation therefore functioned as a pyramid or Ponzi-type investment scheme rather than the investment program described to participants.
Recruitment focused on close-knit religious communities, particularly Amish and Mennonite groups in Pennsylvania. More than 4,000 people in those communities invested in GMI. The organization also attracted participants from the broader antigovernment “Patriot” movement.
GMI encouraged followers to make substantial financial commitments, including liquidating retirement accounts, using the limits on their credit cards, and selling homes or businesses. Promoters received five-percent “gas money” commissions based on the capital they brought into the organization, creating a financial incentive to recruit additional investors.
GMI’s religious teachings also played a role in how the organization operated. Critics and former members described the use of spiritual pressure to encourage compliance and characterized regulatory oversight as part of a government conspiracy against Christianity.
Participants who questioned the leadership or requested the return of their money were, according to former members, subjected to spiritual intimidation, hostility, or formal excommunication. Some reported being told that requesting their money back would bring the “curse of God” upon them or that they were being “prayed out” and cursed by church leaders.
During the 1990s, GMI’s leadership also developed connections with sovereign citizen, extremist, and white supremacist networks. Associates included Patrick Henry Talbert, a sovereign citizen activist, and Charles Eidson, a former head of the white supremacist Church of the Avenger who moved into GMI’s headquarters. Payne and Eidson published antisemitic rhetoric in Patriot periodicals. In 1998, Payne attempted to limit federal oversight of GMI by filing a “common law notice” declaring that the church was answerable only to an illegal common-law court and associated militias.
As GMI expanded, it established additional operations and pursued several projects. These included its own newspaper and Bible college, the purchase of a major hotel in Kentucky, and the marketing of unproven medical remedies. GMI also announced plans for “Greaterlands,” which it described as a sovereign “Ecclesiastical Domain” modeled on the Vatican. For $10,000, donors were promised citizenship documents and land. Investigators later discovered plans for a paramilitary arsenal that included automatic weapons, explosives, and radar equipment.
GMI also became involved in Liberia during that country’s civil war. Through South African associate Niko Shefer, the ministry directed millions of dollars into the country in connection with promised mining operations. Those operations, however, did not produce the gold that GMI had represented would result from the investments.
Beginning in 1995, regulatory agencies in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and California issued cease-and-desist orders against GMI programs. The organization repeatedly challenged or disregarded these orders by changing program names and arguing that religious gifts were outside government authority. Payne publicly stated that his faith prohibited him from obeying any law that was not written directly by Jesus Christ.
The investment operation began to experience a significant structural disruption in 1998, when Colorado regulators closed Best Bank of Boulder. GMI held tens of millions of dollars in uninsured deposits at the bank. Following the closure, the ministry suspended its monthly payout obligations to investors.
In March 1999, a federal investigation that had lasted several years resulted in the indictment of seven senior GMI leaders on charges including mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy. Federal marshals seized GMI’s Tampa headquarters later that year. Investigators estimated that victims had lost approximately $174 million. Bankruptcy trustees were able to recover only a small portion of the missing assets.
The case proceeded to trial in 2001. After a lengthy proceeding, the defense unsuccessfully argued that the prosecution violated the defendants’ First Amendment rights. Gerald Payne, his wife Betty, Don Hall, Patrick Henry Talbert, and David Whitfield were convicted. Payne was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison. The presiding judge described him as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and stated that he had used religious faith for personal profit. Other defendants received prison sentences ranging from two and a half to nearly 20 years. The convictions and resulting sentences effectively ended GMI’s operations.
Key Sources:
The Associated Press. (1999, March 2). Florida religious group balks at fine.
The Associated Press. (2002, July 14). Victims of church scam unlikely to recover losses.
Chachere, V. (2001, August 7). Couple sentenced in massive, nationwide Ponzi scheme. The Naples News.
Fechter, M. (1998, November 23). Greater Ministries tells faithful it has purged records. The Tampa Tribune.
SPLC Intelligence Report. (1999, July 15). Federal Officials Charge that Florida-Based, Antigovernment Greater Ministries is Actually a Criminal Fraud.