After a 26-day trial, a Kansas jury convicted Kaaba Majeed, 50, Yunus Rassoul, 39, James Staton, 62, Randolph Rodney Hadley, 49, Daniel Aubrey Jenkins, 43, and Dana Peach, 60, of conspiracy to commit forced labor, federal officials stated.
Majeed was also found guilty of five counts of forced labor. Two other co-defendants, Etenia Kinard, 48, and Jacelyn Greenwell, 45, had already pleaded guilty to the conspiracy.
The evidence showed that the defendants were former high-ranking members of the United Nation of Islam (UNOI) or wives of its founder, Royall Jenkins.
Jenkins had been a member of the Nation of Islam until 1978, when he founded the separate United Nation of Islam.
He persuaded his followers that he was shown the proper way to rule the Earth after being “taken through the galaxy by aliens on a spaceship,” according to the indictment. At one point, the group had hundreds of followers, according to The Kansas City Star
“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,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “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.”
“Under the guise of false pretenses and coercion, these victims, some of whom were as young as eight years old, endured inhumane and abhorrent conditions,” said Special Agent in Charge Stephen Cyrus of the FBI Kansas City Field Office. “Today’s convictions should serve as a stark warning that forced labor will not be tolerated by the FBI.”
UNOI required members to follow strict rules, perform unpaid labor, and warned of eternal religious consequences for disobedience.
The organization ran businesses in cities like Kansas City, New York, Newark, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Atlanta.
As former leaders of UNOI, the defendants forced over a dozen victims, including minors as young as eight, to work between October 2000 and November 2012.
The victims worked in UNOI-owned restaurants, bakeries, gas stations, labs, and clothing factories, often up to 16 hours a day. They also provided childcare and domestic work in the defendants’ homes.
None of the victims were paid for their years of work. They lived in overcrowded, filthy conditions, while the defendants and their families lived comfortably. The defendants used coercion and manipulation of UNOI rules to control the victims and force them to work.
First, the defendants separated the minor victims from their parents and support network. UNOI enticed parents to send their children to Kansas by promising an education and development of life skills through work at UNOI-operated businesses. 
The minors did not receive an education from an accredited and licensed school but instead worked excessive hours for UNOI’s financial benefit. UNOI’s unlicensed and unaccredited school or “university” was little more than a vehicle for extracting unpaid labor and publicly humiliating victims who violated one of UNOI’s many rules.
The defendants controlled the following:
(1) what the victims viewed and read
(2) how the victims dressed
(3) how the victims addressed the defendants and others
(4) with whom the victims communicated
(5) where the victims went
(6) what the victims ate to ensure that the victims, particularly the females, maintained a certain weight. The defendants restricted and monitored the victims’ communications with their families, members of the opposite sex, and others.
The defendants required some victims to undergo colonics, which is a procedure designed to cleanse the colon by streaming gallons of water through a tube inserted into the victims’ rectums.
At the same time, the defendants rarely permitted victims to receive outside medical attention for illnesses or injuries.
Third, the defendants regularly punished the victims for violating the rules.
The defendants withheld food, prohibited victims from speaking to others for over two weeks, locked them in a dark, frightening basement, imposed extra work, and beat them, sometimes in front of others, to create a climate of fear and intimidation.
The defendants even held one victim upside down over train tracks because he would not admit to stealing food when he was hungry. Another victim drank water from a toilet because she was so thirsty after not being permitted to drink.
Finally, the defendants instilled a fear of noncompliance and of leaving the UNOI by depriving victims of any education or development of life skills. The defendants also told victims that they would burn in “eternal hellfire” if they left.
Family members who remained at UNOI were required to shun as “detractors” any victim who left, and UNOI claimed credit for any negative consequence that occurred to members who left the organization.
Sentencing hearings are scheduled for Feb. 18, 2025. Kaaba Majeed faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison as well as mandatory restitution.
The rest of the defendants each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The FBI Kansas City Field Office investigated this case, with the assistance of the Departments of Labor and New York State Department of Labor.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Huschka for the District of Kansas and Trial Attorneys Kate Alexander, Maryam Zhuravitsky and Francisco Zornosa of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit are prosecuting the case.