Posted: November 27, 2001
Gerald and Betty Payne, anti-government extremists and founders of Greater Ministries International (GMI), were sentenced on August 6, 2001 in U.S. District Court in Florida for their role in a Ponzi scheme estimated to have bilked investors of as much as $500 million. Leaders of the Tampa-based "church" used Bible verses to lure thousands of people into giving them money based on the promise that God would double it in 17 months or less.
Gerald Payne, founder of GMI, his wife Betty, and three associates, Patrick Henry Talbert, Haywood "Don" Hall, and David Whitfield were convicted in March of multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering. Gerald Payne received a 27-year prison sentence and Betty Payne was sentenced to serve 12 years and seven months in prison. Sentencing hearings are pending for Talbert, Hall, and Whitfield.
The Anti-Defamation League, as part of its monitoring of anti-government extremist groups, devoted a section to Greater Ministries International in its recent report Extremism in America: A Guide
Despite the church's claim that it had made its profits from lucrative international trade and mining ventures, federal investigators revealed the operation to be a classic Ponzi scheme in which early investors were paid off with the proceeds of later investors until the program collapsed in 1998. Hundreds of millions of dollars disappeared, most of which government officials believe is in offshore banks. GMI bilked thousands of investors nationwide, federal prosecutors said.
Over the years, Gerald Payne and Hall became involved with the extreme anti-government ideology of the so-called "Patriot" movement. They associated with members of the sovereign citizen movement and white supremacists. Key associates in the scheme included Patrick Henry Talbert, a sovereign citizen and self-declared "Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven," and Charles Eidson, former head of the virulently white supremacist Church of the Avenger. Eidson moved into GMI's headquarters and helped Payne with legal filings (until their eventual split and Eidson's jailing on unrelated charges). GMI also hosted seminars by "Patriot" figures like Eugene Schroeder and David Wynn Miller and involved itself in the activities of nearby extremists, including common law court activist Emilio Ippolito. When Ippolito and numerous followers were indicted on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in 1997, seven of GMI's top officials were named as unindicted co-conspirators.
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