Brooklyn’s ‘Bling Bishop’ Says He Was Slandered in New Yorker Article

Brooklyn’s so-called Bling Bishop, who was robbed of more than $1 million in jewelry during a livestreamed sermon last year, says he was slandered by a local businessman who said the storefront preacher told him he had City Hall and New York Mayor Eric Adams “in my back pocket.” Lamor Whitehead on Tuesday filed a $200 million lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court against Brandon Belmonte, whose remarks were published in a Jan. 14 New Yorker article headlined “The Mayor and the Con Man.” In the article, Belmonte accused Whitehead, a longtime friend of Adams, of shaking him down for kickbacks to get in on corrupt real estate deals allegedly brokered by the mayor, a former NYPD captain. “As a result of Mr. Belmonte’s conduct,” the lawsuit alleges, “Bishop Whitehead has lost, and continues to lose, business deals, church members, income, and was subjected to a federal criminal indictment based upon Mr. Belmonte’s false statements.”