In my work as an ethics motivational speaker, ethics consultant and book author, I am frequently asked if I believe in Karma, or as the expression goes, “What comes around goes around?” My response is that fraudsters often fall victim to what they seem to attract. An unethical person who associates with unethical people, eventually embraces unethical choices and has unethical consequences.
The following true story is almost absurd in its telling, but illustrates the outcome of bad choices.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead
Lamor Whitehead, a Bishop in Brooklyn, New York, has criminal fraud charges against him going back to 2008. According to a New York Times article (James Barron, December 20, 2022):
“When he was younger, Bishop Whitehead spent time in prison and faced lawsuits… he was ordered to pay a former client $306,000 in 2008 after he did not repay an initial investment of $200,000, and he owed more than $400,000 in judgments to a construction company that had worked on his house and the credit union that financed his Mercedes-Benz and his Range Rover. Also in 2008, he was convicted on Long Island of several charges, including identity theft.”
I suppose that it was while he was in prison, Whitehead had the opportunity to reject the unethical and lead himself toward a lifetime of peace and good ethics. Instead, he seems to have attracted and attached himself to the unethical.
The Bling Bishop
Whitehead found a calling as a “man of the cloth.” He wore expensive suits, rather wild in design, and “covered himself” in expensive jewelry; hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry. He delivered his animated, bigger-than-life sermons from his second-floor chapel. However, one of the techniques to reach his thousands of parishioners was live-streaming. Using that means of communication, he could solicit donations and spread his messages of wealth and prosperity.
However, his flashy attire and jewelry caught up with him last July 2022, when three armed robbers entered his church. In front of his “live” congregation and huge, virtual congregation, he was robbed at gunpoint. It was no act. The robbers (who have since been caught) stole about $1 million worth of jewelry. It catapulted him to fame. However, victimhood for an ex-offender is fraught with peril.
According to CBS News (New York), he has just been
“Accused of defrauding a parishioner out of her retirement savings, attempting to extort and defraud a businessman, and lying to the FBI. Whitehead was arrested on Monday (December 19, 2022) …he allegedly used threats or false promises to collect money from his victims, telling them the money was going to investments that would benefit them financially. One parishioner invested approximately $90,000 of her retirement savings with him, which Whitehead allegedly spent on luxury goods and other personal purposes.”
The Bling Bishop is charged with wire fraud and extortion and he could spend more than 25-years in jail.
In multiple reports, the Bling Bishop claims the FBI is after him because he was a good Samaritan (there’s an irony) and turned in a criminal who was wanted in a fatal subway shooting.
No Karma
If there is anything karmic about Lamor Whitehead’s ethical life, it is that he created his situation, attracted unethical people and ultimately fell victim to his own unethical role in the lives of vulnerable individuals.
It is easy to cast judgment on a “Bishop” who steals from the innocent. However, I can easily juxtapose this case against the massive fines levied against executives at Wells Fargo Bank Corporation who were charged with coercing workers to open fake accounts.
People do indeed fall victim (or triumph) as to what they attract. Ethical or unethical, there is a choice.
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