Former Bay Area 'Bakery Associate' Feeling Heat From Criminal Probe, Civil Suits Alleging Use Of Forged Land Documents To Swipe Real Estate

In Northern California, The Oakland Tribune reports:

• Even as the murder trial of the former Your Black Muslim Bakery's last chief executive progresses, a former bakery associate is the subject of several civil lawsuits accusing him of fraud.
• Jamall Joseph Robinson, 25, also known as Yasir Hakeem Azzem or Jamal Bey, was among bakery associates charged with aiding bakery CEO Yusuf Bey IV in the 2005 vandalism of two North Oakland liquor stores, an incident caught on videotape that made national headlines.
• Prosecutors in 2007 dropped charges against Robinson in that case, but a police report indicated he had done security work for a firm associated with the bakery and since then his name has continued to pop up in connection with other bakery associates.

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• Now Robinson is being sued for real estate fraud in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

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• In Alameda County, Robinson is accused of stealing his aunt's house out from under her. [...] Espinoza sued Robinson on March 15 in Alameda County Superior Court, seeking $1.5 million in various damages. She claims Robinson served her Jan. 19 with a notice to pay rent or vacate her own property "followed by threats and physical violence."
• Robinson had filed with the county a notarized Jan. 5 quitclaim deed on which Espinoza claims he forged her signature, transferring the property to ABM Enterprise. ABM then transferred the property to him under the name Aafiya Muhammad with a Jan. 12 grant deed.
• That same day he filed a $900,000 deed of trust with himself as the trustor, or borrower; First American Title Insurance Co. as the trustee, or titleholder; and another of his businesses -- the Millionaires Boys Club Corp. -- as the beneficiary, or lender.
• He filed another grant deed Feb. 10 transferring the property's ownership once again to another of his businesses, Beverly Hills Escrow and Funding Corp. A First American Financial Corp. spokeswoman said she was looking into the matter, and was unable to comment Friday.
• These documents all bear the same notary's signature. Alameda County prosecutors refused to comment on whether a criminal investigation is under way, but a source familiar with the case said the notary has admitted Espinoza never appeared before her to sign the original quitclaim deed, as the notary had attested. The notary didn't respond to a voice message left at her home.

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• In Contra Costa County, Robinson is being accused of selling homes he never even owned. Jordan Wu, a real estate investor from Allen, Texas, sued Robinson -- under the name Aafiya Muhammad -- for fraud March 1. Wui's lawsuit says he found Robinson through a real-estate auction website, and eventually wired $71,000 for properties [...] in Richmond; Robinson then sent him deeds for the properties.
• But Wu soon noticed the deeds had irregularities. On one, the recorder's date stamp was dated before the notary's signature -- the same notary as in Espinoza's case. A second bore the same recording seal and document number as the first. And all three had notary signatures, stamps and other markings that didn't match up in some way.
• Before he could ask about these irregularities, Wu was served with a lawsuit by Anatasia Ponomareva, [one of the] real owner[s]. Ponomareva's notarized signature seemed to be on the deed Robinson had provided, but the lawsuit said she lives in Russia and hasn't been to the United States in years, and so couldn't have signed the deed at all. The lawsuit says Wu demanded an explanation from Robinson but didn't get one, and so he had no choice but to acknowledge Ponomareva's ownership.
• "Absolutely we believe this was a forgery," Ponomareva's attorney, Thomas Fama of San Ramon, said in late March. Fama said his client has obtained "a judgment from the court to quiet title and to rescind the invalid deeds, so the title is now back in her name."
• Fama said the Contra Costa County District Attorney's office contacted him about this case in December. Deputy District Attorney Ken McCormick, in charge of his office's real estate fraud unit, confirmed Thursday that it's an open investigation.

For more, see Allegations of real estate fraud dog former associate of Your Black Muslim Bakery.