NEW YORK (AP) — A Brooklyn preacher known for his close friendship with the New York City mayor and a previous stint behind bars was arrested Monday on charges of looting a parishioner’s retirement savings to finance his ostentatious lifestyle and extorting money from a businessman by falsely claiming that he could lean on connections in the city to make “millions” together.
Lamor Miller-Whitehead, a bishop who drove a Rolls Royce and made headlines in July when armed bandits broke into his church service and stole $1 million worth of jewelry, pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud, extortion and false statements for allegedly lying to FBI agents by denying he had a second cell phone. The wire fraud and extortion charges each carry a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Miller-Whitehead’s “campaign of fraud and deception stops now,” said Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams. An indictment, returned last week sealed and placed in a courtroom vault, was made public ahead of his appearance on Monday.
Miller-Whitehead, 45, was released on a $500,000 personal recognition bond. US District Judge Lorna Schofield said she must remain in the New York City area while the case is pending, hold a job and cannot have any contact with alleged victims or witnesses.
“Bishop Lamor Whitehead is not guilty of these charges,” defense attorney Dawn Florio said. “He will vigorously defend these allegations. He feels that he is being attacked and that a victim is turning him into a villain.”
Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain who reached out to Miller-Whitehead while serving as Brooklyn Borough President, said: “I have spent decades enforcing the law and I expect everyone to follow it. I have also dedicated my life to helping people with troubled pasts. While these allegations are troubling, I will withhold further comment until the process reaches its final conclusion.”
Prosecutors did not implicat Adams and did not mention Miller-Whitehead’s ties to him.
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Miller-Whitehead formed Tomorrow’s Leading International Ministries in 2013 after serving five years in prison for identity theft and grand theft in a case he claimed was the result of an illegal conviction. Despite preaching in Brooklyn, he lives in a $1.6 million home in Paramus, New Jersey, records show. He also owns apartment buildings in Hartford, Connecticut.
Miller-Whitehead is accused of defrauding victims with threats and false promises of a better life and great investment returns. Miller-Whitehead took the money “with no intent to invest, return, or enrich the victims,” the indictment says.
In one case, reflecting a civil lawsuit filed last year, Miller-Whitehead allegedly defrauded a parishioner out of $90,000 in retirement savings by falsely promising to help her find a home and invest the rest in her real estate business. Instead, prosecutors said, Miller-Whitehead used the money to buy thousands of dollars worth of luxury items and clothing.
In the lawsuit, the parishioner alleges that Miller-Whitehead told him she did not view the money as an investment, but as a donation to his failed campaign last year for Brooklyn borough president and that he was under no obligation to pay him back. The parishioner’s attorney said he had no comment on Miller-Whitehead’s accusation.
Miller-Whitehead is also accused of trying to convince a businessman to loan him $500,000 and give him an interest in certain real estate transactions, in part by alleging that he helped the businessman by obtaining favorable shares from the city government in his name, prosecutors said. Miller-Whitehead “knew he did not have the ability to obtain such shares” but told the businessman they would earn “millions,” prosecutors said.
Earlier this year, prosecutors said, Miller-Whitehead used the threat of force to extort $5,000 from the businessman’s company. According to the indictment, law enforcement officers investigating Miller-Whitehead ordered the businessman to make the payment in February. The businessman was not identified in the indictment.
Miller-Whitehead’s indictment shows he was already under investigation when he was robbed in July and, before that, when he showed up at a Manhattan police station in May in a Rolls Royce SUV to try to negotiate the surrender of a man accused of shoot fatally. a stranger on a New York City subway train.
Miller-Whitehead, noting his closeness to the mayor, told reporters at the time that he had “multiple conversations” with Adams about turning in Andrew Abdullah, though police ultimately detained the suspect outside the offices of the advocacy organization. audiences he represented. to the.
According to the indictment, Miller-Whitehead had been under investigation since at least February. That’s when he allegedly got the $5,000 from the businessman. In June, FBI agents executed a search warrant on Miller-Whitehead’s cell phones. It was then that they say that he lied and claimed that he only had a phone. After the search, according to the indictment, she sent a text message from his second phone referring to it as “my other phone.”
In an Instagram post in the wake of the church robbery, Miller-Whitehead defended his lifestyle, saying he’s “going to live his life the way God has prepared it for him.”
“It’s not about me being flashy,” Miller-Whitehead said. “This is about me, buying what I want to buy. And it is my prerogative to buy what I want to buy”.
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