Your Black Muslim Bakery on the chopping block for $900,000Want a decades-old Oakland bakery uncomfortably linked to a litany of alleged violent and sexual felony criminal charges? It’s yours for just $900,000.
Oh yeah, it’s been shut down by the health department, too.
A trustee for Your Black Muslim Bakery’s Chapter 7 federal bankruptcy has hired a real-estate broker for the seemingly impossible task of selling the business, according to court records filed in Oakland last week. We made a trip to the court’s public terminals in downtown Oakland for a look at where the case stood.
The attempted sale includes Your Bakery’s main 5839 San Pablo Avenue location in Oakland, raided by a swarm of police last month, in addition to a duplex at 1083 59th St. Records show they will attempt to sell it “as is,” baggage and all.
But court records don’t indicate whether the trustee will try to also sell two other bakery locations slapped with minor health-code violations last year, including one for not properly cleaning and sanitizing food contact surfaces. (Follow this link to view descriptions of alleged health-code violations leveled at three total bakery locations over the last several months.)
The bakery previously claimed to have potential buyers lined up for the San Pablo Avenue location. But the Chron’s East Bay reporter, Henry Lee, who’s quietly teased out some of the major scoops in the ongoing Your Bakery saga, recently quoted a lawyer complaining that the establishment’s “newsworthiness” was scaring off bidders.
That’s one way to put it.
A teenaged fix-it man from the bakery has been charged with hunting and assassinating Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey, as you may know by now. Bailey was gathering information about the bakery’s money woes, and Devaughndre Broussard has confessed to the murder stating that he was displeased with Bailey’s snooping.
The claims join a sordid history of criminal allegations tied to the bakery, from charges by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office that bakery founder Yusuf Bey Sr. had raped young children placed in his care to accusations that his son, Yusuf Bey IV, kidnapped and tortured a woman earlier this year. And that’s all before even mentioning the supposed real-estate scam.
Bey Sr. died from health complications four years ago before he could be fully subjected to a court trial, and Bey IV, who took over the bakery when his father departed, is behind bars. Last week, he pleaded not guilty to a slew of felony charges unrelated to Bailey’s killing.
Also last week, the Chron’s Lee reported that attorneys for Bey and Broussard are apparently quarreling over who, exactly, has confessed to what. Broussard’s attorney says Bey IV coaxed his client into a confession when Oakland police left the two in an interrogation room, and Bey IV’s attorney says his client simply urged Broussard to tell the truth. Without recording the conversation, the OPD has left the situation open to a laughable charade of he said-she said. Well, laughable if it didn’t involve the murder of a newspaper editor in broad daylight.
In early August, just after Bailey was killed, a federal judge ordered Your Black Muslim Bakery to liquidate its assets. Prior to his arrest, Bey IV was filing declarations with the court hoping to avoid losing the bakery. According to court documents, which describe his age as 21, Bey IV wished to finger people around him for the bakery’s demise.
“In the past I received advice and consultation from those who had proven to me they did not have my best interest at heart. This was a major learning process, which has now caused me to grow and mature at a rapid rate.”
A hardcore felony criminal trial can also cause one to grow and mature at a rapid rate.
Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded in the late ‘60s by Bey’s father who believed in selling all-natural foods while belligerently advocating for the self-empowerment of African Americans, a movement that included over-the-top conspiracy theories. In later years, the bakery had shed its ties to the Nation of Islam, the religious black liberation sect that once played host to Malcolm X but remained distinctly different from the global Islamic faith or political Islam.
The bakery’s $900,000 debt load, disclosed via its initial bankruptcy filing last October, included $200,000 owed to the IRS. But a trustee told the court last month that the bakery also owes money to various state entities, including tax officials, totaling nearly $100,000.
Meanwhile, another member of the Bey family filed for bankruptcy in federal court last month. A former bakery employee named Alaia Raina Bey disclosed more than $1.3 million in debt, according to court records, including $7,000 in owed county taxes and $1.3 million in outstanding bills on three properties stretching from the town of Richmond to 71st Avenue in Oakland. Although sizable loans were apparently taken out in the debtor’s name, Alaia Bey had this response to a question in bankruptcy forms asking who she used for an accountant:
“No reason to keep books and records – Under Muslim law husband’s [sic] controls all personal and business affaris [sic].”
Her husband goes unnamed despite his role in the woman’s finances.
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Comments (2)
Yusuf Bey IV strikes me as someone in the mold of Elijah Muhammed, a wannabe power figure who finds it convenient to stop at nothing (not even murder) to exercise control. Elijah Muhammed had Malcolm X killed; who had Chauncey Bailey killed? I doubt the "cook" or "dishwasher" did it, at least not at their own initiative.
We don't need gangsters "enforcing" anything or "muslim stormtroopers" smashing liquor stores. The community should put a spotlight on the people who play these games and then freeze them out of the community.
Posted by A. Nonymous | September 4, 2007 03:25 PM
yusuf bey iv is her "husband" despite them not legally being married, thats who she is referring to.
Posted by anon | May 19, 2008 05:59 PM