Greater Ministries International
From 1993, Gerald Payne led Greater Ministries International, an evangelical church group in Tampa, Florida. Using biblical scripture as their marketing language, GMI convinced 18,000 people to invest almost $500 million on the promise of doubling their money within a year and a half. GMI invested heavily in African gold mining, but the enterprise failed badly.
Later, they would claim that the monies taken from their churchgoers were “gifts” and not investments. According to the IRS, it was one of the biggest Ponzi schemes they had ever investigated. In 2001, Payne was sentenced to 27 years in prison, with many other church leaders also receiving long sentences.
