Lamor Whitehead, the so-called bishop bling bling for his love of glitter, he was sentenced this Monday by a federal court in New York to nine years in prison for robbery and extortion, at the end of a far from beatific process in which, according to the tabloids, the character especially lends itself to scandal. —he even made veiled threats, disguised as Bible verses, to the parishioner from whom he swindled $90,000. A close friend of the city’s mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, or so he claimed to be – in reality, one more fabrication in his career of deceit – Whitehead had been found guilty in March after it was proven that he stole a life savings from Pauline Anderson in exchange for a house that the woman, a nurse and single mother, never lived in. The clergyman spent the money on countless luxury items, including a high-end car, but those were not his only sins: he also tried to extort thousands of dollars from a Bronx businessman by promising him favored treatment, and lied to the FBI. .
The long prison sentence seemed to be in the cards since last month, when the feds discovered that the bishop—according to prosecutors, more of a professional scammer who also, or at the same time, ran a church—had shown confidential documents from the case and made veiled threats to Anderson with Psalm 105 of the Old Testament, which reads “Touch not my anointed,” during a service broadcast live to his flock on April 30. The warning seemed to indicate that he believed himself to be beyond good and evil because of his status as a shepherd. More or less what Donald Trump said a few weeks ago upon learning of his sentence (“If they have done this to me, they can do it to anyone”), but with a supernatural dimension, that of an anointed one. A walking display of luxury brand jewelry and clothing, a firefly in search of spotlights, Whitehead was a master of disguise by hiding his shady past under the beatific mantle of his career as a preacher.
Prosecutors say Whitehead — who was convicted in March of fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI — violated the conditions of his probation when he showed several case documents at the aforementioned April 30 sermon. For this reason, the “bishop of the jewels” had his bail revoked and was admitted to a federal prison on May 20. Whitehead had insisted on his innocence on several podcasts, an exposition that also contributed to the bail revocation.
In a memo to the judge before sentencing, prosecutors argued that Whitehead was a “professional con artist and liar” who had committed fraud for more than two decades, abusing his position as a religious leader to make millions, much of it which he spent on elegant clothes and luxury cars.
The fall from grace of Whitehead, 46, was precipitated despite himself in 2022, when, presenting himself as the victim of a film theft, he actually exposed himself to significant legal and public scrutiny: all the spotlights were directed towards him. . The incident in question consisted of the robbery at gunpoint during a sermon broadcast live from his church in Canarsie, Brooklyn, an event that went viral. The loot was more than a million dollars in jewelry, including those of the cleric and his wife, for which two men were later found guilty. But the lights did not go off: by exposing himself as a victim, he involuntarily put himself in the spotlight.
His public appearances multiplied and in them Whitehead bragged about his ties with Mayor Eric Adams, who before becoming mayor was president of the Brooklyn district. The pastor tried to cultivate his alleged closeness to the Democrat, but text messages shown during the trial revealed that the alderman had tried to distance himself from such an equivocal friend, berating Whitehead for creating conflict or, at times, not responding to messages from Whitehead. he. Adams, who is in the federal crosshairs for his dangerous friendships – the investigation seeks to determine whether he has received donations from Turkish entities for his campaign – has not been called to testify.
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Prosecutors believe that after his conviction in March, Whitehead even tried to sell legal documents from his case online. “I don’t see him at all sorry,” the judge said this Monday, after the accused asked for mercy in an incoherent monologue. The deputy prosecutor defined it even more graphically: “It was all lies.”
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