Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead wants you to know he’s innocent despite being arrested and charged with wire fraud and extortion. Watch the “Bling Bishop” explain why he’s innocent and get more details about the case the feds have built against him inside…
It appears that the flashy, luxury-label-loving Brooklyn pastor who went viral after being robbed during a live stream while preaching a few months ago is now going viral for something else. And it’s not good.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead is speaking out after the federal government indicted him on several felony charges for defrauding one of his parishioners of part of her retirement savings, attempting to extort and defraud a businessman, and lying to the FBI. He was arrested yesterday (Dec. 19th) and will be presented in federal court today (Dec. 20th) before United States Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.
”As we allege today, 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. “His campaign of fraud and deceit stops now.”
The 45-year-old “Bling Bishop” was charged with two counts of wire fraud, one count of extortion, and one count of making false statements. He faces up to 65 years in prison for his alleged crimes.
The federal indictment states:
LAMOR WHITEHEAD, who leads a church in Brooklyn, New York, has engaged in a course of conduct in which he sought money and other things of value from victims on the basis of either threats or false promises that the victims’ investments would benefit the victims financially.
First, WHITEHEAD induced one of his parishioners to invest approximately $90,000 of her retirement savings with him but instead spent the investment on luxury goods and other personal purposes.
Second, WHITEHEAD extorted a businessman for $5,000, then attempted to convince the same businessman to lend him $500,000 and give him a stake in certain real estate transactions in return for favorable actions from the New York City government, which WHITEHEAD knew he could not obtain.
In addition, when speaking with FBI agents who were executing a search warrant, WHITEHEAD falsely claimed that he had no cellphones other than the phone he was carrying when, in fact, WHITEHEAD owned a second phone, which he regularly used to communicate — including to send a text message describing it as “my other phone” shortly after telling the agents he had no other phones.
WHITEHEAD, 45, of Paramus, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of extortion, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and one count of making material false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Well, the Bishop of Basement Baptist wants everyone to know that just because you’re arrested doesn’t mean you’re guilty.
”As you guys know and the media let you guys know I was arrested yesterday. And just because you’re arrested doesn’t make you guilty,” he said in a video posted to his Instagram account.
”I’m going to tell y’all today that the Bishop is not guilty. And I’m going to fight it,” he said. “I want y’all to understand this smile isn’t going anywhere. Ten toes down. I’m still the same Bishop.”
Watch the clip above. Do you believe him?
Photo: Facebook Video Screenshot
