Church accountant sentenced for scamming believers

TAMPA, Fla. -- A former church accountant was sentenced Thursday to 19 years in prison for his role in a scam that promised fundamentalist Christians that God would double their money.
An IRS agent testified at David Whitfield's sentencing hearing that the Greater Ministries International elder helped a federal prisoner escape to Mexico and, with the inmate's help, hid $2.6 million in banks there.
Agents also testified that in the months before he was indicted in the Ministries' $448 million Ponzi scheme, Whitfield was buying and selling Salvador Dali artworks to a California gallery.
Some of the money is believed to have been lost in bad investments in Liberian diamond mines or was spent on the church's plan to buy a Caribbean island, arm it and declare it a sovereign nation.
The church made its sales pitch to Mennonite, Amish and Christian fundamentalist communities nationwide and took in hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.
Whitfield was the fifth church leader to be sentenced this week. Earlier Thursday, church elder Haywood "Don" Hall, a 60-year-old pitchman for the scheme, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The five church leaders, including its founders Gerald and Betty Payne, were convicted in March of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Two others who pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities also have been sent to prison.
Whitfield, 48, could face additional charges for helping the federal inmate escape in September 1998.