They filed a court memorandum late Thursday describing what they've found inside the onetime bank building on Bird Street. Lazzara previously granted the request to name a receiver after the lawyers argued that Greater Ministries continued soliciting money for its financial program despite numerous court orders to stop and evidence that ongoing fraud was occurring. Two weeks inside the headquarters have reinforced that belief, the memorandum says. Greater Ministries attorney Al Cunningham and legal assistant Barbara Ketay could not be reached Thursday. Greater Ministries backers have held daily prayer meetings in the parking lot since being forced out of their building.
Followers claim the court action violates religious freedom.
Greater Ministries had run a financial program at least since 1993. Citing biblical passages, the group said divine inspiration has guided vast international trading and mining operations that allowed it to pay a person 10 percent of their original investment back each month until it doubled. The receiver, West Palm Beach attorney James W. Beasley, said last week that investigators inside the headquarters found no evidence of such investments and called the program a swindle. Investigators working with the receiver found evidence that Greater Ministries ran Faith Promises, the money-doubling program, along with enterprises such as minting gold and silver coins with an artificially inflated value, a banking and trust program, and typroperty management for apparent victims, the memorandum says. In addition to a failed 1997 attempt to buy a Broward County bank, the group tried to open banks in Liberia and Grenada, the memorandum says.