Brooklyn Pastor Lamor Whitehead — known as the “Bling Bishop” because of his predilection to wear wildly expensive clothes and jewelry in the pulpit — was convicted of five counts of fraud on Wednesday.
A New York federal jury took just three hours to unanimously find Whitehead (also known as Lamor Miller-Whitehead) guilty of two counts of wire fraud, one count of attempted wire fraud and one count of attempted extortion. Each conviction carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Whitehead was also convicted of one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced to the media.
DOJ proved Lamor Whitehead stole from church parishioners
“As a unanimous jury found, Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, tried to obtain a fraudulent loan using fake bank records, bullied a businessman for $5,000, tried to defraud him out of far more than that and lied to federal agents,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on the DOJ’s website. “Whitehead’s reprehensible lies and criminal conduct have caught up with him as he now stands convicted of five federal crimes and faces time in prison.”
Lamor Whitehead attained notoriety after being robbed during live church stream
Whitehead first came to national attention when three robbers invaded his livestreamed Sunday service in July 2022. The armed bandits stole about $1 million in jewelry while holding Whitehead at gunpoint. The video went viral internationally almost immediately.
According to USA Today, the New Jersey-based Whitehead formed a church in Brooklyn, New York called Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries after serving five years in prison for theft and identity fraud.
Federal investigators proved in court that Whitehead continued to deceive and steal from impressionable parishoners while using his exaggerated connections to New York Mayor Eric Adams to try to extort others. One woman gave Whitehead over $90,000 of her life savings under the guise that the pastor would invest it to buy her a home because she had low credit scores. Instead, Whitehead used that and other ill-gotten money to subsidize his luxurious lifestyle, including a mansion in upscale Paramus, New Jersey, while owning multiple properties in nearby Hartford, Connecticut.
After the trial, Adams reiterated that he had no part in the investigation and said prosecutors indicated “there was no benefits coming from government.”
Lisa Zornberg, chief counsel to Mayor Adams, added that Whitehead was “lying about access.”
“[Whitehead] was lying about influence. He was lying about all of it,” Zornberg stated.
