NEW YORK — Flashy “Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead was busted by federal authorities Monday on charges that he swindled retired parishioners out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
After months of headline-grabbing incidents, where he was both the accused and the victim, Whitehead is in the spotlight once again, this time after federal prosecutors accused him of fraud, extortion and making false statements to the FBI about business deals with members of his Brooklyn church.
“Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, bullied a businessman for $5,000, then tried to defraud him of far more than that, and lied to federal agents,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said after Whitehead’s arrest. “His campaign of fraud and deceit stops now.”
Whitehead was famously robbed at gunpoint on camera of $1 million in flashy jewelry in the middle of delivering a sermon at his Brooklyn church.
Whitehead, 45, who counts New York City Mayor Eric Adams among his friends, is little more than a false prophet who took advantage of men and women who sought his spiritual and financial guidance, the feds charge.
Whitehead, pastor of the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministry in Canarsie, sought money and other things of value from victims on the basis of threats and false promises victims’ investments would benefit the victims financially, according to prosecutors.
In one instance, Whitehead convinced one of his parishioners to invest nearly $90,000 of her retirement savings with him. But instead of delivering her to the financial promised land, Whitehead spent the money on luxury goods and other personal items, authorities said.
In another instance, Whitehead extorted a businessman for $5,000, then attempted to convince him to lend him $500,000 and give him a stake in a real estate transactions in return for favorable actions from the New York City government, which Whitehead knew he could not obtain.
Whitehead even lied to the FBI, according to authorities. When agents executed a search warrant, Whitehead told them he had no cellphones other than the phone he was carrying, officials said.
The truth was that Whitehead owned a second phone, which he regularly used to communicate, officials said. He even used the second phone to send a text message describing it as “my other phone” shortly after telling the agents he had no other phones, officials said.
“Whitehead carried out several duplicitous schemes in order to receive funds from his victims,” said FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll. “When speaking with authorities, Whitehead consciously chose to mislead and lie to them.”
A spokesman for the Southern District of New York said Whitehead was expected to be presented in Manhattan Federal Court Monday afternoon. He is charged with two counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, one count of extortion, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Whitehead’s lawyer Dawn Florio did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
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