Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead was released on $500,000 bond after he was indicted over the weekend, and arraigned on Monday in a Manhattan federal court.
Whitehead, charged with fraud, extortion, and lying to the FBI, is accused of swindling a parishioner out of $90,000. He entered a “not-guilty” plea.
It isn’t clear where the 44-year-old Brooklyn preacher got the $50,000 cash to secure his $500K bond.
The federal judge ordered Bishop Whitehead to surrender his passport, and limit his travel to New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and have no contact with any of the alleged victims or witnesses.
Bishop Whitehead will be confined to his $3 million mansion in Bergen County. He and his wife can also keep – at least for now – their designer clothing, gaudy jewelry, and their fleet of luxury vehicles.
Federal officials say he financed his lavish lifestyle using money he stole from his congregation and other victims.
The indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleges he conned a woman out of $90,000 after telling her he would buy her a home and renovate it with her cash.
Instead, authorities say he bought fancy clothes and other luxury items with the woman’s money.
Whitehead also allegedly extorted a businessman for $5,000 and asked him for a $500,000 loan in exchange for using his influence with New York City mayor Eric Adams, according to the indictment.
“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 on Monday. “His campaign of fraud and deceit stops now.”
