Bishop Lamor Whitehead celebrates arrest of NYC businessman Brandon Belmonte he sued for slander

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Embattled Brooklyn bling Bishop Lamor Miller Whitehead slammed an entrepreneur whom he believes wrongly ratted him out to the FBI — after the businessman was hit with a federal fraud rap of his own.

Brandon Belmonte, 39, was charged Aug. 1 in Brooklyn Federal Court with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and arraigned Friday. 

Whitehead had sued Belmonte in March for slander, claiming Belmonte lied when he spoke to the New Yorker in January and accused the flashy bishop of shaking him down in relation to a property under development in the Bronx.

“This indictment vindicates me,” Whitehead railed to The Post about Belmonte.

“This shows that Brandon Belmonte, who prosecutors have referred to as a ‘businessman,’ is actually a con man. He has defrauded numerous people, taken money from them, allegedly millions of dollars, and he has set me up.”

In the wake of Belmonte’s arrest, Whitehead pleaded for US Attorney Damian Williams to review his case and dismiss the pending fraud charges against the holy man. 

“As Psalms 105:15 says, ‘touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm,’” he said. 

Belmonte, of Montclair, NJ, was busted for allegedly using two straw buyers to finance a luxury car fleet — all while obscuring his intent to use the vehicles as rentals for his company, VIP Cars NYC, according to the federal indictment. 


Brandon Belmonte
Whitehead called Belmonte a “con man.”

Belmonte also was accused of hiding the fact that he planned on renting out the cars from insurance companies, according to the indictment.

Whitehead, who was hit with federal fraud and extortion charges in December, sued Belmonte for $200 million in March. 

Whitehead claimed the federal fraud charges he’s facing stemmed from Belmonte’s remarks, and that Belmonte created a “false narrative to implicate me in a bribery scheme…to get himself out of trouble for all the crimes he has committed.”

The suit is pending but Belmonte hasn’t responded to the case.

Belmonte, whose mother backed his $100,000 bond, pleaded not guilty.

He is due back in court on Aug. 16.

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