‘Bling Bishop’ Lamar Whitehead Convicted Of Fraud, Attempted Extortion, Other Charges

NYC – A flashy Brooklyn Bishop known as “Bling Bishop” was convicted Monday of fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the F.B.I. for scamming elderly woman out of her retirement savings and using the funds and his ties to Mayor Adams to extort a Bronx business owner.

A Manhattan jury found Whitehead – who’s known for getting robbed during a sermon while on Facebook Live and his designer suits and jewelry – guilty of all counts, including wire fraud, attempted wire fraud and attempted extortion.

The bishop scammed Pauline Anderson, out of $90,000 and tried to extort thousands of more dollars from a Bronx auto shop owner, promising to obtain “favors” from Mayor Adams, federal prosecutors said.

Whitehead, 45, convinced the woman to invest the lump sum of money for a house that he claimed he would buy for her and fix up. Instead, he spent the cash on BMW car payments, Louis Vuitton and Footlocker.

He also attempted get the owner of the Bronx auto shop to lend him $500,000 in return for favors from Mayor Adams.

‘Whitehead lied, cheated and stole to keep up with a wealthy appearance,” Prosecutor Jessica Greenwood said.

He is now saying that he was “targeted” because of his relationship with Mayor Adams.

Whitehead is the pastor of the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

He made headline news in July 2022 when him and his wife were robbed at gunpoint while in the middle of delivering a live-stream sermon on Facebook.