Monte Kim Miller may not have been a very successful businessman, but he is apparently a particularly effective cult leader.
Loyal in the extreme to Mr Miller's "Concerned Christians" cult, which has headquarters in Denver, Colorado, several dozen of his followers are said to have bailed him out of bankruptcy to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars, and then followed his orders to sell up their homes, abandon their worldly goods, and follow him to Israel, where the world is set to end on December 31st, 1999, the dawn of the new millennium.
Alerted by Denver police some weeks ago to the prospect of dozens of the "Concerned Christians" converging on Jerusalem, in possible preparation for a Miller-ordered mass suicide on New Year's Eve 2000, the Israeli authorities had been promising to turn the cultists back and put them on aircraft for Denver.
But police officials admitted yesterday that at least 10 of the cultists have now slipped into the Holy Land. They also announced a £7 million security plan to prevent extremist millenarians from attacking holy sites.
The Denver cultists are said to have rented a flat in Jerusalem's up-market, central Rehaviah neighbourhood. But in the past few days, aware that the police were hard on their heels, they vacated those premises and are now believed to have relocated in Jerusalem's Old City, close to the Temple Mount.
It is there that Mr Miller is said to have told his followers that they will have to kill themselves, so that they can gain safe passage to the era of resurrection, led by Mr Miller, while the rest of the planet endures a series of apocalyptic disasters. Mr Miller has said he will die in Jerusalem in December 1999 and be resurrected three days later.
Having failed to block them at the airport, the Israeli police and security services yesterday finalised their multi-million dollar plan to boost security at Temple Mount - with hundreds of extra policemen to be deployed, and a range of electronic devices to be installed - and prevent Mr Miller's followers engaging in a mass suicide.
The precautions are also aimed at a bewildering array of Christian evangelist groups who are expected to start arriving in Israel as the millennium approaches, because of a shared perception that the start of the year 2000 will mark the End, the apocalypse, and that the drama will be centred on Jerusalem, and specifically the Temple Mount.
Denver resident, Ms Sherry Clark, whose daughter Robin is a leading "Concerned Christians" cult member, has described Mr Miller (44), as "very controlling, very manipulative," and with a "trigger temper." She claims that Mr Miller has warned his followers that they will go to hell if they reveal the cult's plans to non-members, and worries that her four grandchildren may have been taken to Israel, or be on their way here.
Israeli airport entry documents indicate that several of the cultists have entered Israel on American passports recently.
Reports from Denver suggest that up to 75 of the cult members may have quit their jobs and sold their homes in recent months, apparently bent on their rendezvous in the Holy Land.
Israeli police spokeswoman, Ms Linda Menuhin, sought to play down the Jerusalem security alert, saying they were not unduly concerned about the mass suicide threats.
The Concerned Christians influence was marginal, she said. "This cult, how many worshippers do they have? Tens, it's really nothing," she said.