Tangled web of housing deals {Your Black Muslim Real Estate Racket}

Contra Costa Times ^ | 11/14/7 | Thomas Peele, Josh Richman, A.C. Thompson, G.W. Schulz and Bob Butler, THE CHAUNCEY BAILEY PROJECT

[SmithL]

Former homeowners say they have lost a combined $1.77 million in property and equity to Bey associate and her spouse --

An Antioch real estate broker with ties to Oakland's Bey family and her husband have, since 2003, acquired nearly $2 million worth of East Bay properties through deals tainted with allegations of deceit.

The revelations about Esperanza Johnson and Antron Thurman come as authorities scrutinize the extensive real estate dealings of the Bey family, their bankrupt Your Black Muslim Bakery and Johnson's role as the broker for an Oakland woman attempting to buy the bakery's headquarters.

Johnson bore four of family patriarch Yusuf Ali Bey's dozens of children.

An array of people and groups have tangled with Johnson and Thurman in court, including a disabled Berkeley bus porter forced from his family home, an Antioch couple now facing foreclosure and East Bay Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that builds homes for the poor and struggling.

Combined, they say they have lost at least $1.77 million in property, cash and equity in the deals, according to an investigation by the Chauncey Bailey Project.

Johnson and Thurman have not been charged with crimes in the cases, but criminal investigations swirl around the bakery.

Its CEO, Yusuf Ali Bey IV, 21, jailed without bail on kidnapping and torture charges, also is charged with real estate fraud. Prosecutors say he bought an Oakland property under a false identity.

Bey IV is the son of Daulet Bey, whom bankruptcy trustee Tevis Thompson has sued for the return of $2.28 million in bakery properties transferred to her in what he deems a bid to "defraud creditors."

[SmithL]

The bakery's tangled affairs apparently played a role in the Aug. 2 shotgun slaying of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey. Police say Devaughndre Broussard, a 20-year-old bakery associate, said he shot Bailey because the journalist was working on a story about the bakery's finances and bankruptcy. Broussard later recanted his confession.

One expert said the judge in that bankruptcy case should consider Johnson's record.

They "should be made aware that a Realtor on a transaction which requires the trustee's approval has a murky background," said Eric Forster. He is a Los Angeles real estate consultant who reviewed Johnson's transactions for the Chauncey Bailey Project.

The attorney for the court appointed bankruptcy trustee charged with liquidating the bakery said Johnson's transaction history would be probed.

"Obviously, it is of some concern to us, and we're looking into it," said Eric Nyberg, attorney for trustee Thompson.

He also noted that Johnson's client, Paulette Arbuckle, may not, in the end, be the highest bidder for the bakery. A hearing on Arbuckle's $899,999 bid is scheduled for Nov. 29. If Arbuckle is successful and Johnson is "entitled to receive the commission, then we really don't have an issue with it."

A spokesman for the state Department of Real Estate, Tom Pool, wouldn't discuss Johnson and Thurman's transactions.

Johnson, whose state business registration was suspended more than a year ago for failure to pay taxes and who, with Thurman, has more than $1 million in state and federal tax liens recorded against them, didn't return numerous telephone calls and e-mails. She also didn't answer the gate at her Antioch home on two recent occasions.

Thurman refused to speak to reporters who approached him recently in Oakland and on Tuesday in Antioch about various cases in which he or Johnson, or both, have been accused of fraud. . . .

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[happinesswithoutpeace]

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[nw_arizona_granny]

Bump.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

...family patriarch Yusuf Ali Bey’s dozens of children

Lowering the CA SAT scores by significant digits!