Brooklyn preacher goes on trial for fraud charges prosecutors say fueled lavish lifestyle
NEW YORK — A Brooklyn pastor with ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams will go on trial Monday in Manhattan federal court on charges that he plundered a parishioner’s retirement savings and tried to extort a businessman for his lavish lifestyle.
Lamor Miller-Whitehead, 47, a Rolls Royce-driving Bishop, faces the start of jury selection two years after a grand jury returned charges against him, including wire fraud, attempted wire fraud, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal law enforcement officials.
Prosecutors say he looted a parishioner’s life savings and defrauded a businessman with false claims that they could use his connections to New York City officials, including Adams, to make millions of dollars. Miller-Whitehead has pleaded not guilty.
Miller-Whitehead has been free on $500,000 bail since his arrest, which came just months after he was the victim of a robbery when $1 million worth of jewelry was stolen from him by armed men who surprised him at a church service.
His attorney, Dawn Florio, said at the time that her client felt like he was being turned from a victim into a villain.
“Bishop Whitehead has pleaded not guilty and looks forward to his day in court so he can fight these charges,” Florio said in a statement Friday.
In the charging documents, prosecutors made no mention of the friendship Miller-Whitehead developed with the city’s mayor while he was Brooklyn borough president before his election to the city’s top job.
But an evidentiary request from prosecutors suggests the mayor’s relationship with Miller-Whitehead could become a central point in the trial. Prosecutors want to require a writer for The New Yorker to testify about a January 2023 article titled “The Mayor and the Con Man.”
Attorney Rachel Strom, who represents New Yorker staff writer Eric Lach, argued in a letter to Judge Lorna G. Schofield that prosecutors were trying to “authenticate a generic, mundane denial” that Whitehead made about his dealings with the mayor once Adams knew he was the target of an investigation.
“The subpoena is highly invasive, would expose the journalist to cross-examination (potentially endangering other confidential sources) and essentially turn the journalist into an arm of law enforcement,” she wrote. The judge was expected to rule before opening statements.
At a news conference last week, the mayor was asked about the legal filings in the case, which showed prosecutors planned to show jurors evidence that Miller-Whitehead used the Adams name to commit fraud and attempt extortion.
Adams responded that anyone reporting it “had to cite the documents that clearly stated he did not have permission and that there was no connection to the actions of (the) mayor or city president.”
Among the evidentiary rulings at the preliminary hearing, the judge agreed to throw out Miller-Whitehead’s criminal conviction for identity theft and grand larceny, which resulted in a five-year prison sentence, although this could come up if he decides to testify .
Miller-Whitehead became a religious figure when he formed the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in 2013.
Although he preaches in Brooklyn, he owns a $1.6 million home in Paramus, New Jersey, and an apartment in Hartford, Connecticut.
Monday’s lawsuit stems from allegations that he cheated a parishioner out of $90,000 in retirement savings by falsely promising he would find her a home and invest the rest in his real estate business. Prosecutors say he instead spent the money on luxury goods and clothing.
He is also accused of convincing a businessman to loan him $500,000 and give him a stake in real estate transactions by claiming that his ties to city officials could bring favorable treatment to the businessman’s interests.
The businessman, Brandon Belmonte, filed a complaint with federal authorities, who launched a six-month investigation in 2022 that culminated in Miller-Whitehead’s arrest.
It was expected that some of the key evidence at trial would be the result of secret audio recordings of conversations between Belmonte and Miller-Whitehead.