After a court found him guilty of extortion and fraud, Bishop Lamor Whitehead received a prison sentence of nine years for his various convicted crimes on Monday (June 17), according to Daily News. Moreover, for those unaware, the specific charges are wire fraud, attempted extortion, lying to the FBI, and other related incidents connected to three separate situations. One of these involves how Whitehead scammed one of his parishioners' mother out of $90K of her life savings, promising to renovate a home for her to live in. Instead, he bought designer clothes and a BMW, tried to extort $5K from someone for a car repair job, and falsified bank documents for a $250,000 loan.
"The defendant was trusted by many in his community," assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Greenwood expressed. "He was the bishop of a small church in Brooklyn and a self-described businessman. He was a friend to the mayor of New York City." Furthermore, she claims that Bishop Lamor Whitehead took advantage of his congregation's trust and made up stories about Hollywood heavyweights for their cash. "He promised to use the money to buy a fixer-upper home that he would renovate for [his parishioner's mother] to live in. And she believed the defendant, a man who, by that time, had become a mentor and spiritual adviser to her son."
Bishop Lamor Whitehead Sentenced To Nine Years
Of course, this is far from the only controversy Bishop Lamor Whitehead has experience in, albeit probably the most serious. Nevertheless, he previously made headlines for challenging D.L. Hughley to a million-dollar boxing match. "Wait 'til y'all hear this interview," Whitehead shared about his talk with Hughley. "I'm sitting there like, 'Yo, bro. Brother. Yo, I actually like you. I watch your movies.' You know? And he was [screams] like a little girl! [scream] Like a little chihuahua!"
Meanwhile, this incident resulted from a robbery that took place during one of Bishop Lamor Whitehead's live-streamed services. Perpetrators stole about $400K in jewelry during the live event, which caught many's eyes as a scandalous story almost two years ago. Clearly, things took a turn at one point, and now he has much bigger fish to fry. It looks like the court closed this case, but we'll see if any other details or developments emerge.