Northeast
'Bling Bishop' lashes out at FBI after being convicted of fraud, attempted extortion, lying to feds
Lamor Whitehead, a Brooklyn preacher nicknamed the “Bling Bishop” for his ostentatious clothes and flashy cars, claimed Tuesday that his conviction for defrauding an elderly parishioner and trying to extort a business owner was part of a larger scheme by the FBI of trying to make him become an informant against New York City Mayor Adams.
Whitehead, 45, posted a video message to his 1.3 million followers on Tuesday from inside his Rolls-Royce, saying he refused to dish on Adams to the FBI. Adams’ campaign has faced a federal corruption investigation.
“This wasn’t about me…. I was not going to be an informant for the FBI against NYC Mayor Eric Adams,” Whitehead wrote in the caption of the video.
“This was politically driven,” Whitehead said. “This was about Mayor Eric Adams.”
BROOKLYN’S ‘BLING BISHOP’ LAMOR WHITEHEAD DENIES STEALING FROM PARISHIONER’S MOTHER ON DAY 1 OF FRAUD TRIAL
Lamor Whitehead, left, with Eric Adams, then Brooklyn borough president, walking at the West Indian Parade in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Sept. 5, 2016. (Stefan Jeremiah)
Whitehead was found guilty on five counts, including wire fraud, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
Whitehead was convicted of inducing Pauline Anderson to invest around $90,000 of her retirement savings with him by promising to use the money to help her buy a home.
Instead, prosecutors say Whitehead splashed the money on luxury goods from Louis Vuitton and Foot Locker as well as car payments. When Anderson demanded to be paid back, Whitehead lied to avoid returning the money, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Whitehead also extorted Bronx auto body shop owner Brandon Belmonte for $5,000 and then attempted to convince the businessman to lend him $500,000 and give him a stake in certain real estate transactions in return for favorable actions from Adams, even though prosecutors say Whitehead knew he could not obtain the favors he promised, prosecutors said.
NYC BISHOP ROBBED OF $1M IN JEWELRY MID-SERMON FILES $20M LAWSUITS AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA CRITICS CLAIMING HOAX
Whitehead, of Paramus, New Jersey, faces decades in prison.
“Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead, left, was convicted of wire fraud on Monday but claims that the trial arose after he refused to become an FBI informant against Mayor Eric Adams, right. (Instagram/ @iambishopwhitehead)
“As a unanimous jury found, Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, tried to obtain a fraudulent loan using fake bank records, bullied a businessman for $5,000, tried to defraud him out of far more than that, and lied to federal agents,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
“Whitehead’s reprehensible lies and criminal conduct have caught up with him, as he now stands convicted of five federal crimes and faces time in prison.”
Whitehead claimed he was “targeted” and vowed to appeal.
He said the FBI showed up to his home on June 8 looking for information on the mayor and told him he was not under arrest but that they had a search warrant to take his phone.
“And what they said to me, was, ‘we don’t want you, we want the mayor of New York [City],’” he said. “And just because I was not going to be a federal informant… the FBI said they [were] going to make my life a living hell, and that’s what you guys are seeing.”
Whitehead said he is innocent. The FBI investigation into Adams burst into the public domain in November when the home of one of his campaign consultants was raided.
The FBI told Fox News Digital it would not be commenting on Whitehead’s claims.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead speaks during a news conference in Brooklyn on July 29, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
In a July 2021 Instagram post, Whitehead posted a collage of photographs of himself with Adams before Adams assumed office, writing, “Congratulations to my mentor, friend and someone who I can say really help me become a man!”
Whitehead had sought to follow in Adams’ footsteps by becoming the Brooklyn borough president. But Adams would not endorse Whitehead and admonished him for using his name in a “misleading” campaign ad, according to the New York Times, citing text messages prosecutors showed during the trial.
Whitehead sought Belmonte to give him a loan of $500,000 while promising him access to Adams.
One of Whitehead’s lawyers played down his client’s relationship with Adams at the trial, saying that he could get a meeting with Adams “faster than most people” – and that statement, he contended, was true. But prosecutors also showed messages from Whitehead to Adams in early 2022 that went unanswered, the New York Times reports.
Adams told reporters last month that legal filings by the prosecution “stated that clearly [Whitehead] did not have authorization and there was no connectivity to the actions of [the] mayor or borough president.”
At a press briefing earlier today, Adams said he had no part in the investigation and that prosecutors in the case said there were “no benefits coming from government.”
Pauline Anderson, meanwhile, said she trusted Whitehead to buy her a house since she could not afford one due to low credit.
“He was a man of God,” she said, according to the New York Times. “I believed him as the leader of his church.”
“Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead claims that his trial arose after he refused to become an FBI informant against Mayor Eric Adams. (Instagram/@iambishopwhitehead)
Whitehead has previous criminal convictions for identity theft and grand larceny, which resulted in a five-year prison stint.
He became a bishop when he founded the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in 2013.
The Brooklyn preacher owns a $1.6 million home in Paramus, New Jersey, and an apartment in Hartford, Connecticut.
Whitehead has been free on $500,000 bail since his arrest, which came only months after he was the victim of a robbery when $1 million in jewelry was stolen from him by gunmen who surprised him during a church service.
Fox News’ Maria Paronich, Chris Pandolfo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Connecticut
Motorcyclist killed in Chevy Chase crash, shutting down Connecticut Avenue for hours
A motorcyclist died in a crash in Chevy Chase, Maryland, early Tuesday, shutting down a busy stretch of Connecticut Avenue for hours, police said.
A vehicle and a motorcyclist crashed near Manor Road and Connecticut Avenue, and officers responded about 6:15 a.m., Montgomery County police said.
Connecticut Avenue is closed between Manor Road and Jones Bridge Road, the Metropolitan Area Transportation Operations Coordination (MATOC) Program said about 10 a.m. Commuters should expect delays and look for other routes.
Access to Connecticut Avenue (also called MD-185) was blocked from the Inner and Outer loops of the Beltway, the MATOC Program said.
“An extended closure is expected,” they said.
The crash happened about a half-mile south of the Capital Beltway (I-495) exit for Connecticut Avenue.
Information on the identity of the motorcyclist and the cause of the crash wasn’t immediately released.
Maine
Regular gas tops $4, premium over $5 in Maine amid severe Trump Iran threats
Maine’s average price for regular gasoline rose to its highest point since August 2022, as the conflict in Iran continues to drive up global oil costs.
A gallon of regular gas averaged $4.03 here Tuesday, ticking up more than 6 cents overnight, according to data aggregated by motor club AAA. That price has risen 38.5% — about $1.12 — since Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel struck Iran, triggering a conflict that has since spilled into the broader Middle East.
Maine’s average price crossed the $4 threshold a week after the national average did so. The national average was up to $4.14 Tuesday, AAA data shows.
Premium gas was up to $5.07 per gallon in Maine, topping $5 for the first time in nearly four years. Diesel, meanwhile, averaged about $5.90 per gallon Tuesday.
Collectively, those figures mark the state’s highest average gas prices since the summer of 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine drove gas prices to record highs. A gallon of regular gas peaked at $5.09 that June, the highest ever recorded by AAA.
This week, Maine’s prices were the 21st highest among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to AAA. California, Hawaii, Washington, Nevada and Oregon all saw average prices above $5 per gallon Tuesday.
This is a developing story.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts food insecurity hits record, annual report finds
Food insecurity is rising in Massachusetts while assistance programs are falling short, according to the latest annual report from the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham. The sixth annual Massachusetts Food Access Report finds that a record 40% of Massachusetts households experienced food insecurity during 2025. According to the authors, that equates to 1.1 million households across the Bay State. Additionally, the report finds that 25% of households report regularly missing meals or going hungry. Their conclusions are based on a survey of more than 3,000 adults across the state. The authors said the survey was conducted from October through December in three languages. “Our results are sobering: more people are struggling, and while they report accessing food and nutrition assistance programs like food pantries, SNAP, and WIC, they also say these programs are not enough. Every population—from families with young children to seniors—is struggling to afford food,” Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, who advised the research, wrote in a statement. Affordability remains a key challenge, with 88% of food-insecure households reporting difficulty paying for at least one basic expense and needing an average of $500 more per month to meet basic needs, according to the report. The report found 75% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants said they still need additional food support, while 78% receive less than $300 per month in benefits, according to the report. Meanwhile, the authors state that charities are playing an “increasingly essential role,” serving more than half of the state’s food-insecure households. “The call to action is clear: we must continue to invest in our emergency food system to meet this urgent and growing demand. And we must work together on implementing long-term solutions to poverty to empower everyone to live better, healthier, and more productive lives,” the Greater Boston Food Bank’s outgoing CEO, Catherine D’Amato, wrote in a statement. Among the recommendations included in the report are calls to increase state funding for nutrition programs, strengthen food insecurity screenings through the health care system, investments in local food systems and legislative changes to address societal issues that contribute to hunger, including income and housing inadequacy.WCVB partners with the GBFB for an annual day of giving.
Food insecurity is rising in Massachusetts while assistance programs are falling short, according to the latest annual report from the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham.
The sixth annual Massachusetts Food Access Report finds that a record 40% of Massachusetts households experienced food insecurity during 2025. According to the authors, that equates to 1.1 million households across the Bay State.
Additionally, the report finds that 25% of households report regularly missing meals or going hungry.
Their conclusions are based on a survey of more than 3,000 adults across the state. The authors said the survey was conducted from October through December in three languages.
“Our results are sobering: more people are struggling, and while they report accessing food and nutrition assistance programs like food pantries, SNAP, and WIC, they also say these programs are not enough. Every population—from families with young children to seniors—is struggling to afford food,” Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, who advised the research, wrote in a statement.
Affordability remains a key challenge, with 88% of food-insecure households reporting difficulty paying for at least one basic expense and needing an average of $500 more per month to meet basic needs, according to the report.
The report found 75% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants said they still need additional food support, while 78% receive less than $300 per month in benefits, according to the report. Meanwhile, the authors state that charities are playing an “increasingly essential role,” serving more than half of the state’s food-insecure households.
“The call to action is clear: we must continue to invest in our emergency food system to meet this urgent and growing demand. And we must work together on implementing long-term solutions to poverty to empower everyone to live better, healthier, and more productive lives,” the Greater Boston Food Bank’s outgoing CEO, Catherine D’Amato, wrote in a statement.
Among the recommendations included in the report are calls to increase state funding for nutrition programs, strengthen food insecurity screenings through the health care system, investments in local food systems and legislative changes to address societal issues that contribute to hunger, including income and housing inadequacy.
WCVB partners with the GBFB for an annual day of giving.
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