By Ivan Pereira
After more than a year on the lam, Malcolm X’s youngest daughter was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court last week for allegedly swindling a family friend out of her identity and tens of thousands of dollars, the Queens district attorney said.
Malikah Shabazz, 45, was ordered held in jail on $100,000 bail following her indictment March 2 on several charges, including grand larceny, forgery and unlawful possession of personal identification information, Queens DA Richard Brown said.
Shabazz, who was extradited from North Carolina, where she was apprehended more than two weeks ago, allegedly stole $55,000 from the 70-year-old widow of her father’s bodyguard by using a forged signature to apply for credit cards, according to Brown.
“The charges are serious and if true represent a betrayal of their friendship,” he said in a statement.
Khaula Bakr, of Far Rockaway, received a letter from Wells Fargo Bank claiming she had a credit account with the institution that was past due in the amount of nearly $28,789, Brown said. Bakr’s late husband was Malcolm X’s bodyguard and with him when he was assassinated in Harlem in 1965. She kept in touch with the civil rights leader’s family, who resided in East Elmhurst in the 1960s.
Bakr never opened those credit card accounts and ran three credit checking reports to get to the bottom of the problem, the DA said. She discovered that there were two other credit accounts listed in her name that had an address in South Carolina where Shabazz resided, according to Brown.
The reports said Bakr had a combined past due debt of more than $27,000 from the two accounts, Brown said. A fourth credit card account was also allegedly found that was used for the business “All Day and All Night Markets,” where Bakr and Shabazz were listed as the authorized users, according to the DA.
The purchases on all the accounts took place between August 2006 and November 2007, the DA said.
An investigation found that a letter was allegedly submitted to the credit card companies with Bakr’s and Shabazz’s signature and requested that the bank reissue credit cards and checks with a new account and PIN number, according to Brown.
Shabazz asked Bakr for her personal information under the pretext of needing it for child-care power of attorney, Brown said. The widow, however, never received any child-care documents from Shabazz after she gave her the personal information, according to the DA.
An arrest warrant was issued for the suspected schemer in October 2009 and she was finally found by North Carolina authorities.
Shabazz was ordered to return to court March 15, Brown said. If convicted on all of her charges, she faces up to seven years in prison, the DA said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
