Posted on 11/28/2007 2:16:07 PM PST by 2banana
As the late Yusuf Bey built Your Black Muslim Bakery into an empire of wealth and influence, he also orchestrated a systematic welfare fraud scheme at his Oakland compound, three of his former wives have testified.
By the wives' sworn account, Bey directed many of the 100 women whom he considered his wives to make fraudulent applications for government aid programs intended to assist poor families, then diverted the benefits to himself.
Bey's alleged fraud scheme began in the 1970s and continued in some form until his death in 2003, according to the women, who gave depositions in a negligence lawsuit against Alameda County that was settled out of court earlier this year.
The allegations prompted an extensive investigation by county officials, but incomplete county records and the complicated nature of the alleged scheme were key reasons the investigation stalled, and no civil suit to recover money was filed, said Alameda County Counsel Richard E. Winnie.
The revenue - thousands of dollars per month, perhaps more than $1 million over the course of the scheme, testimony in the case suggests - helped inflate the clout of Your Black Muslim Bakery, a business Bey proselytized as an icon of economic self-sufficiency.
The alleged fraud scheme was aided by two employees of the Alameda County Social Services Agency who were also Bey's sisters-in-law, the former wives testified. A welfare worker who was Bey's sister-in-law once tipped off the bakery that it might become the target of a fraud investigation, according to the testimony. As a result, the bakery's households jumped off the welfare rolls in an attempt to avoid scrutiny, a former wife testified.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
A nobody saw nothing?
At least the old bakery in my neighborhood had Football Cards in the oven. It burned down.
Lock the whole lot of them up....
“100s of wives going back to the ‘70s?”
Hey, I give this guy kudos for being able to put up with 100 frickin wives.
How many of you can put up with just one? (ladies too)
“Football Cards in the oven”
Huhhhh?
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