Posted on March 14, 2024

Brooklyn Pastor ‘Bling Bishop’ Found Guilty of Spending $90,000 of His Parishioner’s Savings on Luxury Goods

Nic F. Anderson and Brammhi Balarajan, CNN, March 13, 2024

A flashy, jewelry-wearing Brooklyn pastor was convicted Monday in federal court of using a parishioner’s retirement savings and trying to extort a businessman while touting he had connections to the New York City mayor.

Lamor Whitehead, nicknamed the “Bling Bishop,” is a pastor at the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries. {snip}

Whitehead, known for his Louis Vuitton suits and extravagant jewelry, also made headlines in 2022 after he said he and his wife were robbed of $1 million worth of jewelry at their church.

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Prosecutors said that Whitehead defrauded one of his parishioners by convincing her to invest $90,000 of her retirement savings with him, according to the indictment. The document said Whitehead would help her buy a home and invest the money, but he used it on luxury goods and personal expenses instead.

Whitehead also extorted a businessman for $5,000 and then attempted to convince the man to loan him $500,000 and grant him a stake in real estate transactions in exchange for obtaining “favorable connections by the New York City government” that he knew he could not provide, according to the indictment.

Whitehead used his ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams to try to make the deal {snip}

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