NEW YORK--Malcolm X's youngest daughter pleaded guilty Thursday to ripping off the 70-year-old widow of one of her father's bodyguards by running up $55,000 on credit cards taken out in the woman's name.
Malikah Shabazz will be sentenced to five years probation next month as long as she pays back the $55,000 owed to various credit card companies, Queens prosecutors said. If not, she could be locked away for seven years.
"The defendant, who preyed upon the trusting nature of a once-close family friend, has admitted her guilt in committing a serious felony offense and will be ordered to make her victims financially whole," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Shabazz, 46, remains held in lieu of a $100,000 bond while she awaits a July 28 sentencing. She pleaded guilty to a single count of first-degree identity theft during a hearing before Queens Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho.
Shabazz was arrested at her North Carolina home in February amid allegations she stole the identity of Khaula Bakr, the widow of a Malcolm X bodyguard who was with the slain activist when he was assassinated at Harlem's Audobon Ballroom in 1965.
Bakr sensed something was wrong when Wells Fargo bank notified her that she owed nearly $30,000 on a credit card account she never opened, prosecutors said. The address used to open up the account came back to Shabazz's South Carolina home, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Shabazz moved to a remote farming town in North Carolina with her teenage daughter days before her arrest as questions swirled about a fraud scheme that dates back to 2006.
Shabazz is in the middle of a long-running legal dispute with her five sisters over their parents' $1.4 million estate.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Friday, June 10th 2011 at 11:10AM
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