Brooklyn’s ‘flamboyant bishop’ Lamor Whitehead will spend nine years behind bars for a litany of crimes including defrauding and extorting his own parishioners.
The 46-year-old church leader was found guilty in March on five charges, including wire fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI, stemming from three separate schemes.
Whitehead, who became famous for the fancy suits he wore and the Rolls Royce he drove while running Tomorrow’s Leaders International Ministries in Canarsie, has been in custody since Judge Lorna G. Schofield revoked his bail last month.
She chastised him at the time for making false statements about law enforcement officials and their victims on social media, and lashed out at Whitehead again on Monday after he pleaded with her for leniency. reports the New York Times.
“I don’t see any remorse for his conduct,” Schofield said, adding that he didn’t seem to appreciate the effects his crimes had on his victims, or even the basic facts of the case.
Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead was sentenced Monday to nine years behind bars.
Among the crimes Whitehead was convicted of was defrauding Pauline Anderson, an elderly single mother, out of $90,000 from her retirement fund.
He had promised to buy it to help her achieve her lifelong goal of buying a house, but prosecutors said he instead spent the money on purchases at Polo and Louis Vuitton and payments on a BMW.
When the victim’s son finally tried to recover his mother’s funds, Whitehead said in a text message that he was asking God to “demand vengeance” on the man.
Two other schemes targeted a money lending company and a Bronx businessman.
He was convicted in March of five charges, including wire fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI about having a second cell phone, stemming from three separate schemes.
Whitehead became famous for the fancy suits he wore and the Rolls Royce he drove while leading Tomorrow’s Leaders International Ministries in Canarsie.
Prosecutors said Bishop wrote up false bank statements to obtain a $250,000 loan, claiming he had millions in a company account that actually contained less than $6.
He was also accused of trying to extort $5,000 from Brandon Belmonte, the owner of a Bronx auto body shop, after a repair job.
Prosecutors alleged that Whitehead also tried to convince Belmonte to loan him $500,000 and give him a stake in real estate deals, insisting that his connections with city officials could win them favorable treatment and make them millions.
In a recording of a conversation between Whitehead and Belmonte, who was wired for the FBI, the pastor could be heard telling the body shop that he had “the key to the city” and could get favors from Mayor Eric Adams. – including obtaining permits to operate affordable housing or lifting stop work orders at construction sites.
Those claims were false, prosecutors argued.
Prosecutors have said Whitehead told one of his victims that he could get favors from Mayor Eric Adams.
They argued in a pre-sentencing memo that Whitehead was a “career fraudster and liar” who committed fraud for more than two decades.
They claimed he abused his position as a religious leader to raise millions of dollars and noted that after his conviction in March, Whitehead attempted to sell legal documents from his case.
Prosecutors also noted that in 2008, Whitehead was convicted of several counts of identity theft for a scheme in which he insured cars and motorcycles using other people’s names. He served five years in prison for the crime.
“This defendant has repeatedly committed serious crimes and has repeatedly placed the blame for them on everyone but himself,” prosecutors wrote in the pre-sentence memo.
Then in court Monday, Pauline Anderson cried as she described how she spent her entire life working, only to lose her entire retirement fund when she gave it to Whitehead.
“I lost everything I had worked for,” she said, adding that Whitehead’s betrayal “broke my heart, my spirit and my soul.”
Her son, Rasheed Anderson, 30, once a Whitehead acolyte, also said his mother was a single, working mother from Jamaica who helped support many relatives, always putting herself last, the Times reports.
“I was used and taken advantage of, and that’s why I have to watch my mother suffer because of Lamor Whitehead’s deception,” he said.
His defense attorneys argued that he is a man of faith and should be “immediately released.”
But Whitehead’s defense attorneys argued that he should be “immediately released” on supervised release.
His lawyer, Dawn Florio, argued that he is a man of faith who had done charitable work and had even tried to dedicate himself to public service as Brooklyn borough president.
He pointed to numerous letters from parishioners of Tomorrow’s Leaders International Ministries praising Whitehead and argued that he may have post-traumatic stress disorder due to a robbery caught on camera while giving a sermon two years ago.
Two men have since pleaded guilty to the robbery and are due to be sentenced in August, while a third man accused of the robbery was killed in a shootout with U.S. Marshals in January.
Whitehead also asked for a lighter sentence, highlighting his work in a poor Brooklyn community.
Whitehead, meanwhile, asked the judge for a lighter sentence, highlighting his work in a poor Brooklyn community, according to the Times.
He mentioned several police officers and elected officials he said he’s worked with on gun buybacks, youth programs and “untold turkey giveaways,” saying, “I’m a pillar of the community.”
“Your Honor, I am an honorable man and my children need me,” said Whitehead, the New York Post reports.
“Let me be the example of another opportunity.”
But Schofield disagreed, arguing that he took no responsibility for his actions and sentenced him to nine years in prison with three years of post-release supervision.
Outside court, Rasheed Anderson said he hoped Schofield would order a longer prison sentence, but added that he hopes the sentence will lead to his mother recovering her hard-earned money.
“It’s been a traumatic event for all of us,” he told the Times.
“This is our first step toward closure.”