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Lamor Whitehead, a 44-year-old Paramus resident known for his Rolls Royce, Gucci suits and bling, was arrested by federal agents on Monday, Dec. 19, on an indictment that charges him wire fraud, extortion and lying to the FBI.
The indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan accuses Whitehead 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 bought fancy threads and other luxury items for himself instead, it says.
Whitehead also extorted a businessman for $5,000 while seeking a $500,000 loan in exchange for what he said was influence in New York City government, the indictment alleges.
On top of that, it says, he tried to deceive federal agents who were on to him by hiding a second cellphone that he used to conduct business.
“Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, bullied a businessman for $5,000, then tried to defraud him of far more than that, and lied to federal agents,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said after Whitehead’s arrest. “His campaign of fraud and deceit stops now.”
Whitehead – who lives in a nearly $3 million home on Sipporta Lane in Paramus -- entered a not-guilty plea at an arraignment Monday in Manhattan, after which a federal judge allowed his release on $500,000 bond.
He 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 under the terms of his release.
Whitehead also cannot open any new lines of credit without federal permission, the judge ordered.
Defense attorney Dawn Florio said federal prosecutors were trying to turn her client “from a victim into a villain.”
“We are vigorously going to defend these accusations,” she told reporters outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan as Whitehead stood silent beside her in a white sweatshirt and camo pants.
FBI Assistant Director Michael Driscoll, in turn, said Whitehead “carried out several duplicitous schemes in order to receive funds from his victims” and then “consciously chose to mislead and lie to” investigators.
The trouble began with a civil suit filed last year by Pauline Anderson, a 56-year-old parishioner who accused him of convincing her to liquidate her life savings and give him $90,000 in “investment” money.
Whitehead instead used it for a down payment on a $4.4 million home in Saddle River, just up Route 17 from Paramus, Anderson alleged.
The pastor made headlines in July when three robbers burst into the Tomorrow International Ministries and robbed him of an estimated $1 million worth of jewelry during a live-streamed service. The video ended up going viral.
The following month, the bishop put his 9,000-square-foot Paramus home on the market.
State authorities 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 on Sunday, less than 24 hours before his eventual arrest, "but now they’re seeing I was anointed by God.”
Whitehead, who reportedly has ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also asked parishioners to donate hundreds of dollars to his church.
“It’s sowing time,” he says in the video. “I need to understand who’s going to sow $300 right now. Sow $100. God is still going to bless you. It’s a measurement of your faith.”
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