45°
Lamor Whitehead was already facing charges of swindling a female parishioner out of $90,000 in retirement money when a new indictment this week accused him of fabricating bank records to try and finance his million-dollar mansion in Paramus.
Whitehead made it appear on paper that he controlled an LLC that had an average balance of more than $2 million when it actually had less than 10 bucks, the indictment returned in the Southern District Court of New York in Manhattan alleges.
The 45-year-old bishop — known for his Rolls Royce, bling and decade-long friendship with New York City Mayor Eric Adams — didn’t get the loan.
He got arrested, again, instead.
On a new episode of the ‘Way Up With Angela Yee' podcast, Whitehead claims the FBI used a sketchy informant who once did body work on his wife's car to make a case against him.
Whitehead called the cooperator, Brandon Belmonte, a "known con man."
"All you gotta do is Google him. You guys are going to see it all come out that I was set up," the bishop says. "The feds didn’t bother me, and now all of a sudden, this white man set me up."
Whitehead made headlines last summer 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. The video ended up going viral.
FBI agents then arrested Whitehead in December on charges of conning a parishioner of his Canarsie church out of her retirement savings by promising to use the money to buy her a home.
He instead used it for a down payment on a $4.4 million home in Saddle River, just up Route 17 from Paramus, as well as fancy threads and other luxury items, they said.
They also accused Whitehead of extorting a businessman for $5,000 while seeking a $500,000 loan in exchange for what he said was influence in New York City government.
On top of that, they said, he tried to hide a second cell phone from them that he allegedly used to conduct his illicit business.
Whitehead was subsequently released from federal custody but had to surrender his passport, restrict his travel to New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and have no contact with any of the alleged victims or witnesses.
Then came new charges this week involving Whitehead's nearly $3 million six-bed, seven-bath home on Sipporta Lane in Paramus.
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 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 company that built the Paramus home.
“Everybody thought that I was a villain," the bishop told parishioners in a live stream last December, less than 24 hours before his eventual arrest, "but now they’re seeing I was anointed by God.
“For everybody that’s praying for me, thank you, man. And for everyone that wish my downfall, thank you — because the Bible says that, God says, ‘I’ll make your enemies your footstool'," Whitehead said at the time.
“You gotta be careful with touching a bishop, Even if you feel like I’m not one, I am one," he added. "And if you become an enemy of God, right, that’s on you.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice North Hunterdon and receive free news updates.
