Lamor Whitehead, left, with Eric Adams, then Brooklyn borough president, walking at the West Indian Parade in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Sept. 5, 2016. (Stefan Jeremiah)
Whitehead was found guilty on five counts, including wire fraud, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.
Whitehead was convicted of inducing Pauline Anderson to invest around $90,000 of her retirement savings with him by promising to use the money to help her buy a home.
Instead, prosecutors say Whitehead splashed the money on luxury goods from Louis Vuitton and Foot Locker as well as car payments. When Anderson demanded to be paid back, Whitehead lied to avoid returning the money, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Whitehead also extorted Bronx auto body shop owner Brandon Belmonte for $5,000 and then attempted to convince the businessman to lend him $500,000 and give him a stake in certain real estate transactions in return for favorable actions from Adams, even though prosecutors say Whitehead knew he could not obtain the favors he promised, prosecutors said.
Whitehead, of Paramus, New Jersey, faces decades in prison.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead speaks during a news conference in Brooklyn on July 29, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
In a July 2021 Instagram post, Whitehead posted a collage of photographs of himself with Adams before Adams assumed office, writing, "Congratulations to my mentor, friend and someone who I can say really help me become a man!"
Whitehead had sought to follow in Adams’ footsteps by becoming the Brooklyn borough president. But Adams would not endorse Whitehead and admonished him for using his name in a "misleading" campaign ad, according to the New York Times, citing text messages prosecutors showed during the trial.
Whitehead sought Belmonte to give him a loan of $500,000 while promising him access to Adams.
One of Whitehead’s lawyers played down his client's relationship with Adams at the trial, saying that he could get a meeting with Adams "faster than most people" – and that statement, he contended, was true. But prosecutors also showed messages from Whitehead to Adams in early 2022 that went unanswered, the New York Times reports.
Adams told reporters last month that legal filings by the prosecution "stated that clearly [Whitehead] did not have authorization and there was no connectivity to the actions of [the] mayor or borough president."
At a press briefing earlier today, Adams said he had no part in the investigation and that prosecutors in the case said there were "no benefits coming from government."
Pauline Anderson, meanwhile, said she trusted Whitehead to buy her a house since she could not afford one due to low credit.
"He was a man of God," she said, according to the New York Times. "I believed him as the leader of his church."
"Bling Bishop" Lamor Whitehead claims that his trial arose after he refused to become an FBI informant against Mayor Eric Adams. (Instagram/@iambishopwhitehead)
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Whitehead has previous criminal convictions for identity theft and grand larceny, which resulted in a five-year prison stint.
He became a bishop when he founded the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in 2013.
The Brooklyn preacher owns a $1.6 million home in Paramus, New Jersey, and an apartment in Hartford, Connecticut.
Whitehead has been free on $500,000 bail since his arrest, which came only months after he was the victim of a robbery when $1 million in jewelry was stolen from him by gunmen who surprised him during a church service.
Fox News’ Maria Paronich, Chris Pandolfo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
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