Wallace Fard was born 1891 in New Zealand. He was the founder of the Black Muslim sect, "Lost-Found Nation of Islam in North America". Fard arrived in the United States in 1913, settling briefly in Portland, Oregon. He was arrested in 1918 for violation of the Woolwine Act (California prohibition law) and in 1926, for the violation of the State Poison Act (sale of narcotics) and was sentenced to San Quentin. After his release from prison in 1929, he went to Chicago, then on to Detroit as a silk peddler. In 1934, Fard left Detroit and was never heard from again. A San Francisco newspaper article written in 1963 exposed Fard as an enterprising racketeering fake.