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Lamor Whitehead, 45, promised to put the $90,000 toward buying her a home, federal prosecutors told jurors in the Southern U.S. District of New York who found him guilty of all charges after only three hours of deliberations on Monday, March 11.
Instead, the infamous "Bling Bishop" blew the money on BMW payments and luxury purchases at various stores, the government said.
One of Monday's convictions stemmed from Whitehead using ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams in an attempt to extort a business owner into loaning him $500,000. Another involved him trying to hide a second cellphone from FBI agents as they closed in on him.
Whitehead made headlines when three gunmen burst into his Tomorrow International Ministries church above a Haitian restaurant in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn and robbed him and his wife of an estimated $1 million worth of jewelry during a live-streamed service in July 2022.
The masked bandits pocketed a Rolex and a Cavalier watch -- each valued at $75,000 -- along with a $25,000 ring, among other valuables.
The video ended up going viral.
The FBI arrested the Rolls Royce-driving Whitehead later that year.
Two months ago, one of the men wanted for robbing him during the online service was killed by U.S. Marshals during a shootout at a Route 1 hotel.
SEE: Fugitive Hunted In 'Bling Bishop' Robbery Killed By US Marshals In NJ Hotel Shootout
Whitehead already had a history when the FBI came calling in 2022.
State authorities in New Jersey won a conviction against Whitehead in 2006 for buying cars and motorcycles with stolen identities. Although sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, he was released for good behavior in 2013, records show. He founded his church soon after.
Whitehead then reportedly stopped making monthly payments on a Mercedes-Benz and Range Rover in 2019, leading to a $68,000 judgment against him in Superior Court in Hackensack.
He was also accused of bouncing a $164,000 check to the contractor who built a $1.6 million home for him in Paramus.
“Everybody thought that I was a villain," the bishop told parishioners in a live stream in December 2022, less than 24 hours before his eventual federal arrest, "but now they’re seeing I was anointed by God."
Whitehead later claimed the FBI used a sketchy informant who once did body work on his wife's car to make the latest case against him.
SEE: 'Bling Bishop' From Bergen Accused Of Faking Docs To Finance Paramus Mansion: 'FBI Set Me Up'
"The feds didn’t bother me, and now all of a sudden, this white man set me up," he declared on the 'Way Up With Angela Yee' podcast in March of last year.
Federal prosecutors told jurors what turned out to be a believable version of the facts.
Whitehead "lied, cheated and stole to keep up a wealthy appearance,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Greenwood said during opening statements last month. "When the lies caught up to him, he lied to the FBI."
The victimized mom of one of Whitehead's loyal parishioners from New Jersey testified during the trial.
Former nurse Pauline Anderson cried as she described how she trusted Whitehead with her $90,000 retirement savings to help buy her a house because he was "a man of God."
“I believed him as the leader of his church," she told the jurors.
Anderson said she tried to get the money back but Whitehead kept blowing her off. She sued him in 2021. He countersued.
The FBI then got interested.
SEE: ‘Bling’ Bishop From Bergen Seized By FBI, Charged With Swindling Retiree Out Of $90,000
Whitehead, toting a $2,250 Fendi backpack to court, took the stand himself as his only defense witness.
He spoke of a rough-and-tumble childhood in Brooklyn and claimed that a man killed by police in Crown Heights in 1978 was his father -- an assertion that's been challenged by the dead man's daughter.
Whitehead then claimed that the FBI wanted him to help "get the mayor of New York" but that he wouldn't snitch.
None of it washed with the jurors.
U.S. District Court Judge Lorna G. Schofield scheduled a July 1 sentencing on convictions for wire fraud, attempted wire fraud and attempted extortion, among other counts.
Whitehead's defense attorney, Dawn Florio, said she plans to appeal.
Her client is technically looking at 45 years behind bars, but it likely will be closer to a quarter to a third of that once federal sentencing formulas are applied.
One thing is certain: Unless he becomes terminally ill, Whitehead will have to serve out whatever term of incarceration he receives because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
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