About a year ago, not long after Eric Adams was sworn in as the mayor of New York, an old friend and church leader named Lamor Whitehead went to an auto shop in the Bronx, to drop off a Mercedes-Benz G-Class S.U.V. that had been in a crash. Whitehead led a small church in Brooklyn called Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries. People called him Bishop. The shop he visited, No Limit Auto Body, was operated by a man named Brandon Belmonte, who was involved in real estate. Federal prosecutors would later refer to Belmonte as “a businessman.”
The Mercedes was a twenty-five-thousand-dollar job. Belmonte paid the thirteen-thousand-dollar bill for a rental replacement while the work was getting done. Whitehead wanted more. “He basically says, ‘You got to give me another five grand,’” Belmonte recalled. “I said, ‘Bro, the job was only twenty-five thousand. Thirteen and five is eighteen. The parts were seven grand. I’m gonna make zero.’ ” It occurred to Belmonte that Whitehead wasn’t trying to negotiate— he was asking for a kickback. He promised to make it worth Belmonte’s while. “I got City Hall in my back pocket,” Whitehead said, according to Belmonte.
Denne historien er fra January 30, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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Denne historien er fra January 30, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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MEAN TIME
“Hard Truths.”
ENLIGHTEN ME
The secret beauty of mandalas.
THE BEST OF THEM
His was a genius for the ages. Will Gottfried Leibniz ever get his due?
DEATH CULT
Yukio Mishima’ tortured obsessions were his making—and his unmaking.
Prophecy
The night of Dev’s twenty-second birthday, he was invited to sit with the elders after dinner.
A TALE OF TWO DISTRICTS
Lauren Boebert and Colorado’s red-blue divide.
THE TIKTOK TRAIL
Andean migrants draw others to the U.S. with videos depicting themselves as living the American Dream.
LOVE AND THEFT
Did a best-selling romantasy novelist steal another writer's story?
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STILL PROCESSING
Why is the American diet so deadly?