Malcolm X’s youngest daughter was sentenced to 5 years probation Thursday for swindling an elderly widow out of $55,000 by running up charges on her credit card.
Malikah Shabazz, 46, has been ordered to pay back the money she stole or risk being thrown into prison for seven years.
Shabazz declined to comment on the sentence afterward, except to note “I haven’t been in New York City since 1999.”
Family members who had rushed to Queens Supreme Court in March when Shabazz was flown from North Carolina to face felony charges were not in attendance.
Shabazz pleaded guilty to first-degree identity theft last month.
District Attorney Richard Brown accused Shabazz of “preying upon the trusting nature” of Khaula Bakr, a family friend and widow of one of Malcolm X’s bodyguards. Prosecutors say she opened credit card accounts in Bakr’s name.
Khaula Bakr, 70, discovered the theft when she got a letter from her bank demanding nearly $30,000 in payments for an overdue account.
Shabazz was arrested in March after social service workers went to her rural North Carolina home to investigate a complaint that her 13-year-old daughter wasn’t attending school.
