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On Sunday, Bishop Lamor Miller-Whitehead wore an Adidas tracksuit and a jeweled watch as he addressed his congregation via live stream from his home. During the more than two-hour service that he titled “What You’re Made Of,” the “Bishop of Bling” discussed his collection of Fendi, Gucci and Louis Vuitton items.
“It’s God’s design,” the New York-based preacher of Leaders of Tomorrow International Churches said in a clip posted on Instagram. “Use what you want to use because it was designed for you.”
Miller-Whitehead was arrested on federal charges less than 24 hours later. A grand jury alleged that some of the Bishop’s designer items were not the product of faith, but the result of defrauding a member of his church. He is also charged with attempting to extort money from a businessman and lying to federal investigators, according to an indictment.
“Their campaign of fraud and deception now stops,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a news release.
On Monday, Miller-Whitehead pleaded not guilty to all four charges he faces, including wire fraud, attempted extortion and deception of the FBI. His attorney, Dawn Florio, told Mademoiselleosaki that Miller-Whitehead “is not guilty of these charges.”
“He feels like he is being attacked and made a villain of a victim,” Florio said.
Miller-Whitehead was released after posting $500,000 bail, Florio confirmed.
Miller-Whitehead made headlines in July when three masked gunmen entered his church and took $1 million worth of jewelry from the bishop and his wife during a live-streamed service. Two suspects were arrested two months later, while a third remains at large, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced in September.
The incident reaped international attention, but afterward, questions began to surface about Miller-Whitehead’s extravagant lifestyle, and soon, some of the bishop’s previous legal battles were brought into the spotlight.
One of the incidents that resurfaced after the robbery: a 2021 lawsuit that claimed Miller-Whitehead had promised to help a parishioner buy a home.
“I am a man of integrity and you will not lose,” Miller-Whitehead texted the woman, who was recovering from “life-threatening surgery,” after liquidating her savings account in 2020, according to court documents.
Instead, he is accused of using $90,000 the woman had withdrawn from her retirement account as part of a down payment on a $4.4 million property in New Jersey. according to demand.
After they went months without buying a house, the woman confronted Miller-Whitehead, who reportedly said he was under no obligation to pay her since the money she provided counted as an investment in his failed campaign for Brooklyn Borough President. in 2021. A year later, the woman’s lawsuit became part of the indictment against Miller-Whitehead.
The indictment also alleges that Miller-Whitehead made “threats of force” to obtain $5,000 from an entrepreneur’s company earlier this year. Then, between April and May, the bishop allegedly tried to persuade the same anonymous businessman to loan him $500,000 and give him a “share in certain real estate transactions.” In return, prosecutors said, Miller-Whitehead promised to “obtain favorable action from the New York City government” in a move that would enrich both the bishop and the businessman with “millions.”
It’s unclear why Miller-Whitehead would allegedly receive special treatment from government officials, but the prosecution’s allegations have shed light on Bishop’s relationship with New York Mayor Eric Adams, who as former Brooklyn borough president took to Miller-Whitehead under his wing, according to the pastor’s online biography.
A spokesman for Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post. However, in a statement to the Gothamist, the mayor said he would refrain from comment until the case is resolved.
“I’ve spent decades enforcing the law and I expect everyone to follow it,” Adams told the outlet, calling the allegations “troubling.” “I have also dedicated my life to helping people with troubled pasts.”
The three charges Miller-Whitehead faces, two counts of wire fraud and one count of extortion, carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison each. Bishop is also accused of making material false statements to FBI agents, who were executing a search warrant, about the number of phones he owned, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years.
After being convicted of identity theft and larceny, which he said were “unlawful” convictions, Miller-Whitehead drew on the “power of transformation through God’s love and grace” to found Tomorrow’s Leaders Ministry, according to his biography. A preacher of the prosperity gospel, the Bishop’s sermons often profess that a combination of God’s will, unwavering faith, and financial giving will result in personal wealth: His “Gucci, Fendi, and Louis” outfits are a witness to it, said Miller-Whitehead one day. before his arrest.
“Everyone thought I was a villain,” Miller-Whitehead said during his Sunday sermon, reflecting on the reactions to the July robbery. “But now they are seeing that I was anointed by God.”
Source: news.google.com