In sweeping charges alleging public contract fraud, forged real estate deals and identity theft stretching from Alameda to Orange counties, authorities arrested a Black Muslim minister, his mother and five others, saying they ran a wide-ranging scam through a private security firm, known as Black Muslim Temple (BMT) International Security Services, that falsely claimed its guards were retired Navy SEALs and its leader a former FBI agent.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said the charges involved “not only large-scale bid fraud victimizing local communities and cities and counties around the state, but also real estate fraud, insurance fraud, bankruptcy fraud, income tax evasion and the exploitation of workers by evading workers’ compensation insurance and payroll.” O’Malley said the group led “an organized and sophisticated criminal enterprise conducting an extraordinary variety of fraudulent activities.” The charges, detailed in a 118-page affidavit, allege the firm faked insurance and state license documents and made fanciful claims of expertise it did not possess.

O’Malley’s staff and the state Department of Consumer Affairs began investigating BMT in March.The Port of Oakland that month was in the final stages of agreeing to terms with the company when it terminated negotiations, citing reporting by the San Jose Mercury News on the bogus credentials. The city of Oakland also backed off on a proposal to award the firm part of a contract to guard City Hall. The Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles rescinded a BMT contract after the investigation by the newspaper.The group sought and at times obtained lucrative contracts with Los Angeles agencies, Alameda County, Vallejo, Oakland, the Port of Oakland and Newport Beach.

Alameda County canceled its contract with the firm back in 2012 after a BMT guard beat up a guard from a rival company on the first day of the county contract to protect a public works building in Hayward. A lawsuit by the injured guard, Robert Chamberlin, helped expose the fraudulent credentials that government procurement officials had failed to vet when awarding the contracts. Upon learning that BMT was still listing it as its insurance carrier, the insurance company in that lawsuit contacted district attorney’s investigators to alert them to the discrepancy. The policy had been canceled in 2009 for non-payment of premiums, according to the complaint..

Those arrested include Black Muslim minister Dahood Sharieff Bey, 42, and his mother, Rory Parker, 63, Basheer Fard Muhammad, 62, Qadirah Najeebah Bey, 39, Jameelah Aasma Muhammad Bey, 39, Billie Latrice Poindexter, 33, and Ira Barnard Dickerson Jr., 53. among those who were arrested. District attorney’s inspector Patrick Johnson requested in an affidavit that the seven defendants be denied bail because he suspects their means of income for years has been fraudulent.

A spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs said it should not be blamed. BMT had fraudulently taken over the security license of a retired Oakland police officer who had moved out of state. “We had no way of knowing the license had essentially been hijacked,” said the spokesman, Russ Heimerich.