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Brunswick -- Nuwaubian leader Malachi York's organization averaged more than $1 million a year in receipts for the six years before his 2002 arrest, according to earnings reported to the IRS.
During the years starting in 1996, York, who is accused of molesting youths and fraud, reported in his personal income taxes a net income of $775,000 and payment of $305,000 in income taxes, according to testimony in his trial in federal court here. However, none of the more than $5 million in deductions was for wages paid employees or followers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Moultrie asked York's accountant, Neil Dukoff, if that seemed odd. "Everyone runs their business the way they want to run it," Dukoff responded. "We were not provided with wages paid out."
Dukoff was called by York's defense to counter prosecution claims that he ran the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors as an enterprise to molest children and siphon off money.
"A lot of people in the educational or religious [field] declare themselves nonprofit," said Dukoff. "We never took that stance."
Several York followers already have testified that they worked in York's quasi-religious organization for no pay. Those testifying for the defense say they expected none, that their living needs were provided for by the organization. Prosecution witnesses say they were expected to work long hours -- filling incense orders, selling books or working on the Nuwaubian compound in Middle Georgia -- for no pay.
York, 58, who founded the organization in New York and moved it to a farm in Putnam County in 1993, is accused of systematically molesting girls and boys in the organization for years.
Dr. Frederick Bright, a professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine, testified that he reviewed files compiled on the alleged victims by investigators and doctors. He characterized much of the reporting as sloppy.
Prosecutors hammered away at Bright's perceived bias, noting that he has belonged to York's organization since 1996 and once lived on the property for two years.
Also, Judge Ashley Royal ruled that the defense can call a psychologist to testify that children who are alleged victims of sexual abuse sometimes can make false accusations if there is "external pressure" on them or "preconceived beliefs on the part of investigators."