A Brooklyn bishop, known for his lavish lifestyle, made news after he was robbed of $1 million in jewelry during a live-streamed service and boasted about his relationship with New York City’s mayor. According to The Guardian, he was recently convicted in federal court of wire fraud, attempted extortion, and lying to the FBI. Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 47, was convicted on five charges following a trial in federal court in Manhattan that began at the end of last month. Prosecutors claimed that the preacher inflated his relationship with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and succumbed to greed, misappropriating a parishioner’s retirement savings and trying to blackmail a businessman to pay for his lavish lifestyle.
The bishop was also accused of supplying false information to FBI officials by denying ownership of a second smartphone
He was also accused of supplying false information to FBI officials by denying ownership of a second smartphone. Dawn Florio, Miller-Whitehead’s attorney, announced that they would appeal the judgment, arguing during the trial that the evidence did not support the charges against her client. The preacher initially gained national notoriety in July 2022, when armed bandits interrupted his church session and stole $1 million worth of jewelry at gunpoint. According to a December 2022 story by New York magazine, the robbery may have been tied to Miller-Whitehead’s involvement in an incident in June, when he allegedly intervened in the wake of the fatal shooting of Daniel Enriquez, a Goldman Sachs employee, on a Chinatown subway train. The shooting resulted in the arrest of a man named Andrew Abdullah.
Mr Miller-Whitehead, also known as the “Bling Bishop,” was notorious for traveling around in his Rolls-Royce, and records reveal he lived in a $1.6 million property in Paramus, New Jersey. That’s not all: he also owned residential buildings in Hartford, Connecticut. Prosecutors claimed Miller-Whitehead defrauded a parishioner out of $90,000 in retirement funds by falsely promising to help her buy a home and investing the rest in his real estate ventures. He allegedly diverted the money to purchase fancy products and clothing instead. Furthermore, he was accused of attempting to persuade a businessman to loan him $500,000 and offer him a share in real estate enterprises, claiming his contacts to city officials as a means to get favorable treatment for the businessman’s interests.
Miller-Whitehead met Adams while he was the Borough President of Brooklyn. Adams, a former police captain, has underlined his commitment to obeying the law throughout his decades-long career and expects everyone to follow it. Miller-Whitehead’s sentencing date is slated for July 1.
