Damian Williams, the US Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director in Cost of the New York Discipline Workplace of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), introduced as we speak the unsealing of an Indictment charging LAMOR WHITEHEAD with defrauding one in every of his parishioners out of a part of her retirement financial savings, trying to extort and defraud a businessman, and mendacity to the FBI. WHITEHEAD was arrested this morning and shall be offered in federal court docket as we speak earlier than United States Justice of the Peace Choose Gabriel W. Gorenstein. The case is assigned to United States District Choose Lorna G. Schofield.
U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams mentioned: “As we allege as we speak, Lamor Whitehead abused the belief positioned in him by a parishioner, bullied a businessman for $5,000, then tried to defraud him of way over that, and lied to federal brokers. His marketing campaign of fraud and deceit stops now.”
FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll mentioned: “As we allege as we speak, Whitehead carried out a number of duplicitous schemes in an effort to obtain funds from his victims. Moreover, when talking with authorities, Whitehead consciously selected to mislead and deceive them. In case you are prepared to aim to acquire funds by means of false guarantees or threats, the FBI will guarantee that you’re made to face the results to your actions in our legal justice system.”
In keeping with the Indictment unsealed as we speak in Manhattan federal court docket and publicly obtainable info:[1]
LAMOR WHITEHEAD, who leads a church in Brooklyn, New York, has engaged in a course of conduct wherein he sought cash and different issues of worth from victims on the idea of both threats or false guarantees that the victims’ investments would profit the victims financially. First, WHITEHEAD induced one in every of his parishioners to speculate roughly $90,000 of her retirement financial savings with him however as a substitute spent the funding on luxurious items and different private functions. Second, WHITEHEAD extorted a businessman for $5,000, then tried to persuade the identical businessman to lend him $500,000 and provides him a stake in sure actual property transactions in return for favorable actions from the New York Metropolis authorities, which WHITEHEAD knew he couldn’t acquire. As well as, when talking with FBI brokers who have been executing a search warrant, WHITEHEAD falsely claimed that he had no cellphones apart from the telephone he was carrying when, the truth is, WHITEHEAD owned a second telephone, which he usually used to speak — together with to ship a textual content message describing it as “my different telephone” shortly after telling the brokers he had no different telephones.
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WHITEHEAD, 45, of Paramus, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of wire fraud, every of which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail; one rely of extortion, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail; and one rely of constructing materials false statements, which carries a most sentence of 5 years in jail.
The utmost potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are offered right here for informational functions solely, as any sentencing of the defendant shall be decided by the decide.
Mr. Williams praised the excellent work of the FBI.
The prosecution of this case is being dealt with by the Workplace’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hagan Scotten, Celia V. Cohen, and Andrew Rohrbach are in command of the prosecution.
The costs contained within the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed harmless except and till confirmed responsible.
[1] Because the introductory phrase signifies, the whole lot of the Indictment and the descriptions of the Indictment set forth herein represent solely allegations, and each truth described needs to be handled as an allegation.
