- Documents showed Pathways leader Kevin Smith paying bills on at least five properties
- Land taxes on four of them, including the church site, were $386,790 in arrears
- He had agreed to buy the church’s Albion Road land in instalments but stopped paying
- Members paid fees for membership cards, monthly ‘covenant seed’ and a building fund
Weeks after the deadly events at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Montego Bay, the Sunday Gleaner obtained documents showing how its leader, Kevin Smith, ran what the paper called a multimillion-dollar empire. The records, reported on November 7, 2021, showed daily tallies of collections and spending, sometimes more than $500,000 in a single day, to keep up at least five properties.
Monthly bills covered properties at The Palms at Richmond in St Ann, the Gemstone Estate villa at Hatfield Meadows in Coral Gardens, his Dorchester Drive home in Ironshore and the church at 144 Albion Road in Montego Bay. An April 14, 2021 entry put land tax arrears on four of the properties, including the church site, at $386,790: $69,400 for Gemstone Estate, $233,920 for Dorchester Drive, $61,120 for a “Dunbar Pe” property and $22,350 for the $4-million property he leased to build Pathways. A source said Smith had agreed to buy the Albion Road land in instalments and was close to finishing, but stopped paying as he focused on acquiring other properties, and refused the owner’s pleas to complete the deal. The owner was said to hope Smith’s estate would finish it.
Members paid $500 a month for adults and $100 for children as a “Monthly Miracle Covenant Seed”, bought membership cards, and paid tithes and special offerings. A Jamaica Day event charged entry, with proceeds said to go to the church building fund. Smith lent money to members at 15 per cent interest, ran a farm with poultry, goats, rabbits and cattle, and explored beekeeping. Gemstone Estate had been listed on travel sites from US$497 a night. The ministry is a subsidiary of Pathway International Foundation Limited, registered as a charity, with Smith and Daphne Frater named as shareholders.
Smith died in a road crash in St Catherine while being taken by police to face murder charges over an October 17 ritual at the church in which two people were reportedly murdered and a third person was shot dead after reportedly attacking police. “The more one gives, the more God gets happy,” one member told the paper, adding that the leader helped many people in need.
The records are a case study in how congregants’ money can end up tied to one man’s property portfolio. A church site held on an unfinished instalment deal, villas and homes in private hands, and unpaid land tax on all of them left the church’s hold on its own site uncertain once the leader was gone. For Jamaican congregations, the lessons are practical: church land should be titled to the church, instalment purchases should be completed and registered, land taxes should be kept current, and members are entitled to know whose name is on the property their giving pays for.
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