Six members of a Kansas-based cult have been convicted for a decade-long scheme that used children for unpaid labour under threat of beatings, while keeping them in overcrowded, rodent-infested housing, U.S. prosecutors announced.
Kaaba Majeed, 50, Yunus Rassoul, 39, James Staton, 62, Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49, Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43, and Dana Peach, 60 — all high-ranking members of the cult or wives of the organization’s late founder — were found guilty of conspiracy to commit forced labour. Majeed was additionally convicted of five counts of forced labour.
The cult in question is known as the United Nation of Islam and the Value Creators (UNOI), and was founded in 1978 by Royall Jenkins as an offshoot of the Nation of Islam, a Black American religious organization — not to be confused with the centuries-old religion of Islam. Jenkins persuaded his followers that he was abducted by aliens who took him through the galaxy and showed him the proper way to rule Earth, according to a 2018 court case against him for forced labour. He died in 2021 from complications of COVID-19.
In a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, officials detailed how some of Jenkins’ wives and right-hand men manipulated cult members to hand over their children for educational opportunities that ended up being a lie. The kids were instead forced to perform unpaid labour in horrendous working conditions, with some of the victims as young as eight years old at the time.
If the children didn’t follow the cult’s rules, they were punished severely. Food was withheld, victims were locked in dark basements and forbidden from speaking to others for upwards of two weeks, extra work was imposed and beatings were regular, prosecutors say. Sometimes the beatings would take place in front of others to create a climate of fear.
“The defendants even held one victim upside-down over train tracks because he would not admit to stealing food when he was hungry,” prosecutors write. “Another victim drank water from a toilet because she was so thirsty after not being permitted to drink.”
The cult leaders told the children they would burn in “eternal hellfire” if they left.
Parents within the cult were enticed to hand over their children so they could participate in educational and work-experience programs at UNOI-operated businesses, which included restaurants, bakeries, gas stations and sewing factories. But the “promises were false,” prosecutors write. The minors did not receive education from a licensed school and instead “worked excessive hours for UNOI’s financial benefit,” sometimes upwards of 16 hours a day.
The children were cut off from their parents, support networks and the outside world, with cult leaders controlling the victims’ clothing, communications and reading materials, and where they were allowed to go. What the victims ate was also strictly controlled, especially the girls, in order to maintain a certain weight.
Some of the victims worked in UNOI businesses in Kansas City but others were trafficked out of state to work in New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Georgia and North Carolina. When they weren’t working, the children lived in overcrowded facilities often overrun with mould, mice and rats.
The scheme took place between October 2000 and November 2012. Apart from propping up the cult’s many businesses with unpaid labour, victims were used for child care and domestic services inside the cult leaders’ homes.
“None of the victims was ever compensated for the years of work they performed at UNOI businesses or at the behest of the defendants,” prosecutors write.
The defendants’ sentencing hearings have been set for February, with Majeed facing up to 20 years in prison. The other five defendants face up to five years.
Two other co-defendants, Etenia Kinard, 48, and Jacelyn Greenwell, 45, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labour.
In May 2018, U.S. Judge Daniel Crabtree called the group a cult and ordered it to pay US$8 million to a woman who said she spent 10 years performing unpaid labour.
“The United Nation of Islam and these defendants held themselves out as a beacon of hope for the community, promising to educate and teach important life skills to members, particularly children,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “Instead, the defendants betrayed this trust, exploiting young children in the organization by callously compelling their labor.
”The bravery shown by victims of the United Nation of Islam is inspiring, because they spoke up about heinous atrocities committed against them as vulnerable children,” said U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher for the District of Kansas. “In childhood, they suffered physical and emotional abuse, were denied a proper education, and were subject to forced labor. As adults, these victims found the strength and courage to pursue justice and face their abusers.”
“Today’s convictions should serve as a stark warning that forced labor will not be tolerated,” Special Agent Stephen Cyrus of the FBI Kansas City Field Office said.