Payments to participants simply came from money sent in by later investors. In the videotaped meeting shown to jurors Thursday, Payne updated church elders on a variety of issues, including Greater Royal Island. Neither the United Nations nor contacts in London expressed a problem with Greater Ministries' purchase, he said. The Bahamian government might feel otherwise, though, and could send a 500-member police force to try to block them. Authorities found a plan for Greater Royal Island in Payne's desk when securities regulators from Ohio and Alabama won a civil injunction in 1999 and evicted Greater Ministries from its Bird Street headquarters here.
Defense attorneys hope the jury emphasizes other segments of the videotaped meeting.
Greater Ministries leaders claimed their financial program was fueled by lucrative international trades and mining ventures. Elder Jim List described Greater Ministries' emerging work in Liberia, which promised unfettered access to mineral deposits. List said on the video. Payne relied on such claims and the advice of his attorneys in charting Greater Ministries' course, defense attorney Ron Smith has argued. Other defense lawyers argued their clients also believed the church was blessed by God and generated the wealth it claimed.