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Prosecutors deny bugging church By MICHAEL FECHTER of The Tampa Tribune Prosecutors will present testimony from at least two former employees and secretly taped conversations between Greater Ministries officials and cooperative witnesses during the upcoming money laundering and mail fraud trial of seven church leaders.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay L. Hoffer referred to a number of available witnesses who used to work at the church during a pretrial hearing Tuesday.
In separate hearings and court papers, prosecutors also promise audiotaped conversations involving the seven defendants. U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. last week denied a defense motion to block government wiretaps.
Recordings have been ``the lawful and proper consensual monitoring of telephonic and other conversations between subjects of this investigation and individuals cooperating with this investigation,'' Hoffer wrote in court papers. Greater Ministries' claims that telephones and fax machines are bugged are ``wild and unsubstantiated claims'' based on second-hand information.
Adams didn't set a formal trial date Tuesday but said he wanted it to start in August.
On March 12, a federal grand jury indicted seven Greater Ministries officials on 20 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering.
At issue is the ministries' money-doubling gift program prosecutors call a Ponzi scheme. The group boasted it could double a person's money in 17 months or less based on biblical references. But prosecutors say the international trading and the gold and diamond mining that officials say made it possible wasn't generating the profits, and newer investors' money was used to pay more established accounts.
Elders, such as defendant James Chambers of Altamonte Springs, received 5 percent commissions called ``gas money'' for the money they brought in, the indictment said. Chambers received $400,000 in gas money, representing $8 million in investments, according to the indictments.
Among the former employees who could testify is Jonathan Strawder, who entered plea bargains with state and federal prosecutors after his spinoff program, Sovereign Ministries International, collapsed in 1997.
Ministries founder and president Gerald Payne, his wife Betty Payne and Haywood ``Don'' Hall are represented by the group's general counsel, Al Cunningham. He said the financial program is a part of the group's core religious doctrine and covered by First Amendment freedoms.
Also charged are Andrew ``John'' Krishak, David Whitfield and Patrick Henry Talbert.
Talbert was convicted in circuit court Friday on 37 counts of racketeering and grand theft stemming from a separate financial program that took $280,000 from 11 elderly investors.
The program was unrelated to Greater Ministries. Sentencing is scheduled for June 2.
Read background on this story on Tampa Bay Online at http://www.tampatrib.com/news/ ministry.htmMichael Fechter can be reached at (813) 259-7621 ormfechter@tampatrib.com<00 2 . 0000.06>< -00001>
