A Brooklyn (Southern New York) preacher known for his ostentatious style and flashy jewelry has been arrested after being accused of trying to defraud one of his parishioners and extorting and defraud a businessman.
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“Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, intimidated a businessman into giving him $5,000 and then tried to defraud him much more and lied to federal agents,” said the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, in a statement released this Monday.
Whitehead, 45, He was the victim of a robbery last July while delivering the weekly sermon, and the thieves stripped him of his jewelry and his wife worth a million dollars, according to what the Police reported at the time.
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That incident, plus his proven friendship with Mayor Eric Adams, brought him momentary fame, but then he was forgotten for several months, although apparently he was already in the eye of the Prosecutor’s Office.
As explained by prosecutors on Monday, the reverend convinced one of his victims, a retired woman, to invest nearly $90,000 of her savings with himamount that the pastor used for the acquisition of luxury goods and for other purposes.
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Besides, pressured a businessman to give him $5,000 and then tried to convince him to lend him 500,000 more in exchange for an alleged participation in real estate transactions.
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After the robbery suffered in July, Whitehead also used social networks to defend himself against comments that attributed the robbery to his fondness for luxury. “It’s not about being flashy, it’s about buying what I want to buy. It’s my right to buy what I want.
I have worked hard to achieve it (so) I can buy what I want,” he said. The controversial pastor previously served five years in prison for identity theft and theftbefore founding his Church of Tomorrow’s Leaders in the Brooklyn borough.
EFE
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