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Friday, November 1, 2013

Creating Value For Investors

Hello everyone,

I hope you're having a great week so far!

We've talked a lot about Creating Value For Investors and you all know that I'm a big proponent of building up a value proposition with your project BEFORE approaching investors...right?

Well the next obvious question is this - assuming you've put in the work to build up real value in your project/package, what next? Where do you go to find these elusive investors to get the ball rolling?

Luckily there's the online platform Slated, that acts more or less like a matchmaking service between filmmakers and investors. But it's not as easy as you think! You still have to provide a real 'package' to these investors for them entertain getting involved. That's right - there are no shortcuts! 

The Slated platform is so exciting to me though because it acts as that 'missing piece' and assuming you've done the work on your end, there's a vetted pool of investors ready and willing to give your project a look. So of course I had to wrangle the Slated co-founders and have them give us the whole low down on how best to leverage this platform they've created.... and it turned out to be one of the most comprehensive interviews they've given yet.

So sit back and enjoy this week's lesson on Best Practices For Raising Private Equity Financing For Your Film:




How To Best Leverage AFM For Your Film

Today in a few hours I'll be doing a live Pre-Orientation for AFM and Open Q+A so you can ask me any questions you have before the big event kicks off next week. If you can't make it live, don't worry - we'll be recording it all for you.



This seminar is free for all Film Specific members. Not a member yet? No problem! Just go here to get started.



Alright everyone, that's it for today. I hope you have a fabulous day ahead and I'll speak to you again soon...

To your success,
Stacey
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Film Specific LLC., 14431 Ventura Boulevard #615, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

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Embezzlements, Other Diversions Drain Millions From Nonprofits

News

Posted on October 29, 2013      print        

More than a thousand U.S. nonprofit organizations acknowledged
in public documents filed between 2008 and 2012 that theft, investment
fraud, embezzlement, or other unauthorized uses of funds had resulted
in a diversion of their assets, the Washington Post reports.

An analysis by the Post and GuideStar of organizations that checked
 a box on their Form 990 indicating they had discovered a
"significant diversion" of funds found that just ten of the largest
disclosures involved combined losses potentially totaling more
 than half a billion dollars. The question about diversions was
phased in by the IRS over three years starting in 2008 and
appears only on federal disclosure forms submitted by larger
nonprofits; private foundations and smaller groups submit alternative
 forms or none at all.

The Post also found that nonprofits routinely omitted important
details from their public filings, even though federal disclosure
 instructions direct them to explain the circumstances of such diversions.
Moreover, organizations are only required to report diversions of
 more than $250,000, or those that exceed 5 percent of an
organization's annual gross receipts or total assets, which suggests
 that many more incidents involving smaller amounts likely go unreported.

While investment fraud such as Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme was
blamed for some of the largest diversions or losses — including
$106 million at Yeshiva University and its affiliates, $26 million at
 New York University, and nearly $7 million at the
Alliance for Excellent Education — many cases involved embezzlement
 by employees. The American Legacy Foundation, for example,
suffered an estimated $3.4 million loss linked to phantom purchases
of computer equipment but waited nearly three years before calling in
 investigators. Youth Service America reported that it discovered a
diversion in 2009 of about $2 million that had been "misappropriated"
by a former employee; Columbia University disclosed in 2011 that it
had been defrauded of $5.2 million in "electronic payments," an incident
 in which a former accounting clerk and three associates were later
 convicted of redirecting $5.7 million meant for a hospital; and the
Louisville-based Woodcock Foundation disclosed that alleged fraud
 by a former chairman drained more than $1 million from its accounts,
 leaving the charity with assets totaling just $8.

According to the Post, a 2012 study by security firm
Marquet International concluded that nonprofits and religious
organizations accounted for one-sixth of major embezzlements
 in the U.S., second only to the financial-services industry. Christopher
T. Marquet, who heads the firm, told the Post that oversight at
nonprofits is often inadequate and that supervisors are too trusting.
 "The control structures in these organizations are much weaker,"
said Marquet.

"It's sadder when it happens to a nonprofit," said the Rev. Raymond
Moreland of the Maryland Bible Society of Baltimore, which was
victimized by a former secretary who falsified checks and misused
credit cards to steal $86,000 from the organization, then concocted
a series of fake audit reports to cover her trail. "You go out of your way
to trust a nonprofit. People give their money and expect integrity,"
said Moreland. "And when the integrity goes out the window, it just hurts
 everybody. It hurts the community, it hurts the organization, everything.
It's just tragic."

As part of the project, the Post has created a searchable public
database of nonprofits that have disclosed diversions.


Flaherty, Mary. Stephens, Joe. “Inside the Hidden World of 
Thefts, Scams and Phantom Purchases at the Nation's Nonprofits.” 
Washington Post 10/26/13.

Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Location(s): National 

Ethan Nadelmann Drug War Discussion

Dear Supporters,

Please join us for the following drug policy reform events throughout the state!

Screening & Discussion of The House I Live In   

You’re invited to a free screening of the stunning drug war documentary The House I Live In this weekend in Asbury Park.  The House I Live In tells the stories of individuals on all sides of America’s war on drugs. From the people who sell drugs to the narcotics officer who busts them, from the people who are incarcerated to the federal judge who locks them up, the film offers a penetrating look inside America’s criminal justice system and reveals the profound human rights implications of U.S. drug policies.

Drug Policy Alliance has partnered with Mayor Campbell of the City of Asbury Park to host the following three events:
                                                                         
When:   Friday, November 1, 2013                                                                                               
Time:    Screening beings at 5:30 pm; Panel discussion to follow                                      
Where:  Barack Obama Administrative Building, 1300 Bangs Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ 07712

When:   Saturday, November 2, 2013                                                                                               
Time:    Screening beings at 11:00 am; Panel discussion to follow                                      
Where:  First United Methodist Church, 906 Grand Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ 07712

When:   Saturday, November 2, 2013                                                                                               
Time:    Screening beings at 2:00 pm; Panel discussion to follow                                      
Where:  Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, 1301 Springwood Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ 07712

**For more information, please see the attached invitations**

Ethan Nadelmann Drug War Discussion

You’re invited to a free lecture sponsored by The Global Health Colloquium which features leading academics, theorists and practitioners speaking on various aspects of global healthEthan Nadelmann,  Executive Director and founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, will discuss the war on drugs and drug decriminalization. This event is co-sponsored by the Princeton-University of São Paulo Project, the Center for Health and Wellbeing, and the Woodrow Wilson School

When:   Friday, November 8, 2013                                                                                               
Time:    Lunch will be served at 11:45 am; Discussion 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm                                      
Where:  Princeton University, Bowl 1, Robertson Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544

**For more information, please see the attached invitation and/or visit the event website**

Please feel free to share the attached invites on social media and/or forward this email to your friends, family and colleagues.  Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Best,
Meagan

Meagan Glaser | Deputy State Director, New Jersey
Drug Policy Alliance
16 West Front Street, Suite 101A | Trenton, NJ 08608
Voice: 609.396.8613 | Fax: 609.396.9478

Think the drug war is doing more harm than good? Join us!

Department of Justice News 10/31/13



You are subscribed to Justice News for the U.S. Department of Justice. This information has recently been updated with the following: 
10/31/2013 05:51 PM EDT

The Justice Department announced a settlement today with the Warren County, N.C., Board of Education that resolves a lawsuit the department filed on behalf of Army Reserve soldier Dwayne Coffer under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).
10/31/2013 05:36 PM EDT

Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division Kathryn Keneally and U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag for the Northern District of California announced that Noemi Rubio Baez, of Salinas, Calif., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to file false claims for tax refunds with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to aggravated identity theft.
10/31/2013 05:31 PM EDT

Vernon Harrison, of Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced to serve 111 months in prison and three years supervised release, along with an order to pay $82,791 restitution, for his role in a stolen identity refund fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally of the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama George L. Beck

 Co-founder of Liberty Reserve Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in Manhattan Federal Court
10/31/2013 04:45 PM EDT

Vladimir Kats, 41, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty today in federal court before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote to money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges stem from his role in running Liberty Reserve, a company that operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currency services and allegedly laundered more than $6 billion in suspected proceeds of crimes.
10/31/2013 04:24 PM EDT

A federal jury in Houston has convicted Gwendolyn Climmons-Johnson, 53, of multiple counts of health care fraud for submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for ambulance services.


10/31/2013 10:02 AM EDT

The United States has filed a lawsuit asking a federal district court in McAllen, Texas, to permanently bar Hector Rangel Jr. from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. 

Would you sell your soul to another woman? Gooooooooooooo #SCANDAL! #scandal abc #kerry washington #bellamy young #olivia pope #mellie grant #my gif #spoilers



1 hour ago • 168 notes
He needs you, Olivia. He is tired and broken and it isn’t the job … it’s doing the job without you. He’s not alive when you’re not here, he can’t breathe when you’re not here. He doesn’t have the will to run, much less win when you’re not here because you … you’re everything to him, Liv. 

The NSF EZone COMING SOON!

For those of you who don't quite understand it yet the E stands for "ENTREPRENEUR" and the EZone Initiative pushes into action all efforts of reducing MURDER, VIOLENCE & the INCARCERATION RATE AMONGST BLACK MEN especially THE YOUNG while INCREASING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY!




So,
for the 411 and what NSF has in store.........You heard it here first....Your Girl....Coming at ya live.....
Philly's Own Gossip Girl
xoxo

Thursday, October 31, 2013

#Gun Crisis..........One mother’s mercy leads to reduced sentence after her son’s death

Posted: 31 Oct 2013 10:00 AM PDT

Every night at bedtime, Movita Johnson writes a letter to her son, Charles. He was shot to death in Philadelphia in a case of mistaken identity in 2011.

When her son’s killers were brought to justice on February 4th, 2013, Johnson pled to the judge for forgiveness for one defendant — who had turned himself in. Her statement led to a
 reduced sentence, but experts agree that social ramifications for mercy in the
criminal justice system can often be complicated.

Movita Johnson, left, comforts another mother who lost her son to gun violence.Movita Johnson, left, comforts another mother who lost her son to gun violence, during a vigil last summer in Southwest Philadelphia. Photograph for theGun Crisis Reporting Project byNidaa Husain.

Johnson, now 47, was born and raised in Southwest Philadelphia, and has has felt the impact of gun violence for most of her life.

Before her ninth birthday, Johnson’s father, Allen Hargett, was shot to death in front of her. In 1992, her older brother Charles Johnson, for whom she named her son, was also killed. The list goes on.
By 2007, Movita’s children — then 14 and 16 years old — had known nine people who had been shot in their neighborhood.

Johnson says that she knew it was time to leave, and moved her family in 2008 to Lansdale, Pa., telling herself that her two sons would not “become statistics on the streets of Philadelphia.”
Three years to the day after moving, Movita Johnson buried her son Charles.

In January 2011, Charles Johnson had gone to pick up his pregnant sister, Charlyne Johnson, when he was shot four times near Washington Lane and Musgrave Street in the East Germantown section of Philadelphia. His mother — as well as media reports from that time — say it was a case of mistaken identity.
“It was like I could not breath,” Johnson recalls feeling when she got the news of her son’s death. “Like there was a foot in my chest.”

Two men were charged with the murder. One turned himself in, according to Johnson, and the second was captured after several months on the run.

On February 15th 2013, the jury came to a unanimous guilty verdict for the first-degree murder for one of the men.

“It felt as if someone finally took the foot out of my chest,” Johnson said.
While reflecting on the trial, Johnson explained how she never expected to feel empathy for two people who murdered her son, but while making her victim impact statement, she asked the judge to show mercy for one of the men.

Johnson remembers feeling that he was a product of his environment, a young man who had never known anything but what she described as a “fatherless drug culture”.

“From a human-centered, more emotional perspective, there is a lot to be said about sufferer empowerment” in regard to punishment, according to Stephanos Bibas, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has written about mercy and forgiveness in criminal procedure.

Bibas explains that society cannot let a murderer walk free because of one victim’s plea for forgiveness, but that “the sufferer ought to be listened to and taken seriously,” and should have some influence on the measure of punishment.

“They are still human beings,” Bibas says, referring to the perpetrators, “and there is a still a possibility of a human relationship”.

Vernique Cottom, the wife of the defendant whom Johnson asked for mercy, reflects on the trial and her interaction with Johnson, specifically their tearful embrace upon meeting.

Cottom says that “Movita was the only one who could understand what I was going through,” adding that “you may not remember what a person does, but you will remember how they make you feel.”

The defendant for whom Johnson wanted to show leniency was facing the possibility of 20 to 40 years in prison for the murder, as well as two gun charges which each carried a potential seven-year sentence.
Both gun charges were dropped and the murder sentence was reduced to 12-to-24 years, according to Johnson, who says that the judge attributed the lighter sentence to her statement.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams supports the role of mercy in certain circumstances, but says he would prefer if defendants could find it long before they enter the criminal justice system.

Williams points out that “There are seven times the amount of people in prison, but that does not mean that we are seven times safer,” and suggests that cities could also fight crime by investing in children’s services and improved educational opportunities.

The number of inmates in state and federal prisons has increased nearly seven-fold from less than 200,00 in 1970 to more than 1.5 million by mid-2007, according to The Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy organization, which also notes that an additional 780,000 are held in local jails, bringing the total to 2.3 million.

At the same time, Williams agrees that a victim’s plea for mercy is not always enough to reduce sentences, stating, “A crime is against the peace, dignity, and tranquility of all of us”.

Movita Johnson looks to her son Charles as a martyr—called by God as a catalyst to help other people—and has created the Charles Foundation in memory of her son. The foundation advocates for children, to help them build skills and build self-esteem, and to teach conflict resolution to reduce youth violence and murder.

In the future, Johnson hopes to create homes for youths who have been involved in the criminal justice system, to teach them problem-solving, empowerment, and show them love.
In the meantime, she will continue writing nightly letters to Charles.

• Check GunCrisis.org next week for an update on the man who was sentenced in this case.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Attend One Step Away's Spares for the Homeless

When
Saturday December 14, 2013 from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM EST
 

Where
Liberty Lanes
6505 Market Street
Upper Darby, PA 19082

We are excited to announce that our 2nd Annual Spares for the Homeless Bowling Tournament will be taking place Saturday, December 14th from 3pm-7pm at Liberty Lanes in Upper Darby. 

Spares for the Homeless is a fundraising event for the organization One Step AwayOne Step Away is Philadelphia's first street newspaper with a mission of providing meaningful income and personal growth opportunities to individuals without homes, while raising awareness and advocacy for the homeless community.
The event will feature:
  • 4 hours of bowling (with shoes)
  • Unlimited food, drinks and beer* 
  • Team Prizes
  • Raffle Prizes
*Please bring a valid ID if you wish to drink, although this is an all ages event!*

To get involved:
  • Register a team of 4 to bowl: $120 per team*
  • Don't bowl? Be a spectator for $20** (includes food, beer, and raffles) 
  • Donate: http://osaphilly.org/
* $120 per team if registered before December 1st. After December 1st, $160 per team. All teams must register in advance. 

** $20 spectator price before the event, $30 at the door.
Get more information
Register Now!
I can't make it
Proceeds from the event will go directly to help
One Step Away continue to employing individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. For more information about 
One Step Away visit: http://osaphilly.org/.


Sincerely,

Emily Taylor
One Step Away

Frequently Heard Excuses








Paythia,
As we work hard in PA to grow support for expanding background checks to all gun sales, a few things keep coming up. Some legislators tell us they support the bill but are hesitant to cosponsor. The problem is, the reasons they give don't make sense.  We bet you're hearing some of these excuses too. We're sending along a little civics lesson to help you out. Here's a list of frequently heard excuses (FHE) and how to respond.
FHE1:  I don't like to cosponsor bills that could be amended.
Response: Any bill can be amended. That's part of the legislative process. If that process results in a bill you can no longer support, you vote no and we would understand that.  It could result in a bill we wouldn't support either.
FHE2: It doesn't matter how many cosponsors a bill has.
Response:
Getting more cosponsors demonstrates to the Judiciary Committee chairs that this is widely supported bill that should be brought to a vote.
FHE3: I will vote for the bill, but I don't want to cosponsor it.
Response:
We appreciate the support and will count on your vote, but without more support now, we might not get that far. We need to show broad and wide support NOW, and we do that with a growing cosponsor list.
The truth is, the only way to show support for expanding the PA background check system right now is to get on this bill. That's what Pennsylvanians are looking for. Over the coming days and weeks we’ll need your help to make sure your representative joins us to make Pennsylvania a safer place.

Boy, 16, 'killed his mother with his friend's help'

Boy, 16, 'killed his mother with his friend's help' after she confiscated his cell phone

  • The body of Tina Helms Spencer, 36, was found at her home in Mesa, Arizona, on Saturday morning
  • Son Mike Helms, 16, has been booked into juvenile detention on charges including first-degree murder and tampering with evidence
  • Police say the boy and his mom had a heated argument after he had his cell phone taken from him 
  • A hearing will be held to determine if the boy and his 17-year-old accomplice should be charged as adults
By Daily Mail Reporter
|

A 16-year-old boy is facing first degree murder charges after his mom’s body was found at the family’s home in the early hours of Saturday.

The body of Tina Helms Spencer, 36, was found murdered in the backyard shed at the property in Mesa, Arizona.
Her son, Mike Helms, has been booked into juvenile detention on charges including first-degree murder, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence.

x 
 
Mike Helms is facing first degree murder charges after the body of his mom, Tina Helms Spencer, 36, was found at the family's home in Mesa, Arizona, on Saturday
 
A 17-year-old friend of the son was booked into juvenile detention on charges of first-degree murder as an accomplice, evidence tampering and concealment of a body.
Police say the 16-year-old had been grounded and had his phone taken away.
 More...
After his mom returned home from work, they allegedly had a heated argument over the phone and he decided to kill her. 

Cops were alerted after receiving a phone call from the son’s stepfather. He also had been attacked by the boy after returning home from work but had managed to escape after a short struggle. 
 
v 
 
Helms has been booked into juvenile detention on charges including first-degree murder, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence

When police arrived, a vehicle was missing from the home and there were signs of a struggle.
During the investigation, police ended up speaking with a 17-year-old friend of the son at his nearby home, when the 16-year-old arrived, he was immediately taken into custody.
Authorities expect a hearing will be held to determine if the juveniles will be charged as adults.
A hammer and a frying pan were found at the scene, which police believe were involved in the incident. 

Police say the 16-year-old asked his friend to act as a lookout so he could attack her when she came home. 

x
School friend Mike O'Connor described Helms as a 'giant teddy' and a friendly kid who sometimes fought with his parents
Both boys allegedly moved Spencer to the shed, attempted to clean up the scene and then the 17-year-old left.
Afterward, police say the 16-year-old decided to also kill his stepfather, but they don't believe the 17-year-old was part of that plan.
A school friend of Helms described him as a friendly kid, a junior ROTC cadet in high school.
'He's a giant teddy. He's tough on the outside. He puts up that front, but when you get to know him, he's a standup guy,' Mike O'Connor told FOX10.

'He didn't really have home issues he talked about. If he did, it was typical stuff. One week he'd have a fight with this parents, the next week he was talking about how his mom was awesome and helping him out with something.'
Video: Boy, 16, accused of murdering his mom

Neighbors: Teen accused in mom’s murder said parents had left state

The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:20 PM
At 6 feet 6 inches tall and 265 pounds, Michael Roy Helms towered over peers at Gilbert High School, but neighbors say the 16-year-old Mesa boy’s tales were even taller.

Some were harmless enough. He bragged about owning a classic car and a boa constrictor he fed a chicken to each week.

But the latest tale is chilling in retrospect: Helms on Friday claimed his parents had moved to Ohio and left him their tract house just south of U.S. 60.

“He said his folks gave him the house. That is not normal,” neighbor Phil Knowles said Monday. “I would think, at that time in his mind, something was going on.”

Helms was arrested a day later on suspicion of firstdegree murder in the gruesome slaying of his 36-year-old mother, who had angered him by grounding him, according to Mesa police.
Mesa officers found his mother, Tina Helms Spencer, dead early Saturday morning in a backyard shed.

Police said there were signs of blunt-force trauma and seized a hammer and a frying pan as possible murder weapons.

Christian Lee Blakely, 17, a friend of Michael Helms’ who lives nearby, was also arrested and is accused of witnessing the woman’s slaying and helping Helms conceal the body.

Detectives believe Helms and Blakely waited at the family’s house in the 2100 block of East Juanita Avenue until Helms Spencer arrived, according to court records.

“As the victim entered her residence, the defendant then intentionally struck her with a frying pan, struck her with a hammer, and choked her in a rage,” according to court records.
Police were called to the house at 4 a.m. by Helms Spencer’s husband, who is also Michael Helms’ stepfather.

Sgt. Tony Landato, a Mesa police spokesman, said the stepfather reported that he was attacked by his stepson as he arrived home early Saturday morning.

“He’s getting choked, he’s being hit. At some point, he’s able to get free,” Landato said.
The stepfather went down the street and called police from another house.
He thought his wife was asleep, but when police arrived, they found blood and eventually found Helms Spencer in the shed. Landato said Helms had quarreled with his mother during a telephone call before she was slain.

Suspect was grounded
He said Helms was upset his parents had grounded him.

Friends said the grounding also meant that Helms could not use his cellphone.
Landato said Helms told Blakely he was planning to kill his mother.

“There was a discussion between the kids. ‘I’m going to do this to my mom,’ ” Landato said.
Although police have no evidence that Blakely participated in the attack, detectives believe he did nothing to defend Helms Spencer and eventually helped Michael Helms carry her body to the backyard shed where officers found her, Landato said.

Blakely’s court records said he “stood in the dark and watched as the murder occurred.”
Blakely confessed to detectives that he watched the slaying and walked with Helms as he carried his mother’s body to the shed, the documents said.

He also admitted helping Helms clean up the house with a mop, according to documents.
The documents said that Helms confirmed many details but added that Blakely helped him drag Helms Spencer’s body to the shed.

The slaying stunned neighbors and friends in the neighborhood near Gilbert Road and U.S. 60.
“They were like big teddy bears,” said Stephanie Galvan, who attended a youth group at a church with Helms.

Sydney Knutson, a friend of Blakely’s, agreed. “He was definitely the sweetest kid I ever met,” she said. “It didn’t seem like he would do anything to anybody.”
But Joan and Phil Knowles, who were befriended by Helms when they first moved to the neighborhood 1 1/2 years ago, said they knew something didn’t add up when they spoke to Helms late Friday afternoon outside his house.

“He said the house is now mine — three times,” Phil Knowles said.
Joan said Helms “told us his folks moved to Ohio to be closer to family.” She said Helms was prone to more innocuous lies — he once said he had a Ford Mustang that he kept at a friend’s house but would still ask neighbors for rides.

“I really thought of him as being aloof, not aggressive,” Phil said.
An autopsy will be conducted on Helms Spencer by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, Landato said.

Michael Helms was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous instrument, concealment of a
dead body and tampering with evidence, according to the court document.
Blakely was arrested on suspicion of first-degree homicide accomplice, concealing a dead body and tampering with evidence.

Jealous butcher ‘killed mom, 4 kids because they had too much’

An illegal Chinese immigrant, bitter over his failure to achieve the American dream, repaid his cousin’s kindness by butchering the man’s wife and four young children, cops said Sunday.
Mingdong Chen, 25, showed no remorse when he confessed to slaughtering the family that allowed him to live in their Brooklyn apartment and admitted that he committed the atrocity because he envied their way of life, a police source told The Post.

“The family had too much,” the source quoted Chen as saying.
“He meant that the family had better income and a better lifestyle than him . . . He was jealous and just killed them.”

Chen was charged Monday but did not enter a plea.
NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III said Chen had cited his inability to make it in America as his motive for the slayings, which apparently took place while the victim’s husband Yi Lin Zhuo was at work.

“Everyone here is doing better than me,” Banks quoted the suspect as saying during a confession in Mandarin Chinese, the only language Chen speaks.
A family friend said slain mom Qiao Zhen Li had tried to boot Chen out of her family’s Sunset Park home.

“She told him, ‘You just leave my house,’ ” said Xiao Wei Yang, 31.
“She was never thinking he’d use the knife to cut and kill everyone . . . She was just helping him, and he just killed her whole family.”

Yang learned of the attempted eviction from a cousin of Li’s who had visited the apartment shortly before Chen’s alleged Saturday-night rampage.
“My friend went to visit her cousin a couple hours before it happened,” Yang said. “She left, so she just said thanks to God.”

About three minutes before cops and ambulances arrived, a neighbor, who asked not to be identified, heard a woman in the house screaming “Help! Help! Help! Help!’’ in the Chinese dialect of Fukinese.
Sources said Chen, who came here illegally from China and worked as a cook, used a butcher knife to slash and stab Li in the face — lopping off several of her fingers when she tried desperately to protect herself.

Cops found Li, 37, in the kitchen with her son Kevin Zhuo, 5. Both were alive but died a short time later at hospitals. The other children — William Zhuo, 1, Amy Zhuo, 7, and Linda Zhuo, 9 — were found slain in a rear bedroom.

Two of the kids, including the baby, had been decapitated, and there was a trail of blood throughout the house, sources said.

“It’s just a scene you’ll never forget, I’ll just leave it at that,” Banks said.
Li’s husband — who arrived home after his family was massacred — appeared dazed when he stepped out of the 66th Precinct station house to talk on his cellphone Sunday.
He walked slowly and ignored questions from reporters before cops escorted him back inside, then took him away out a rear entrance.

A man who accompanied him to the station house, Peolouen Chang, said the husband had emigrated from the coastal Fujian province in China before any of his children were born.
Modal Trigger
Zhuo enters the 66th Precinct station house in Brooklyn Sunday to speak to police about the killing of his wife and four kids, including 1-year-old William Zhuo and 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo.

Banks said the nightmare scene was discovered by Zhuo’s sister and brother-in-law, who went to the 57th Street apartment after Li tried to call her husband to tell him Chen was “acting suspicious.”
When she couldn’t reach her husband, Li called her mother-in-law in China, who also couldn’t reach him and contacted Zhuo’s sister who lives nearby, Banks said.

The sister and her husband banged on the door until Chen finally opened it and they saw him “covered in blood.”

They then called 911, and two detectives who happened to be investigating a robbery pattern nearby raced to the scene.

The detectives, William Greer and Giovanni Talavera, nabbed Chen as he tried to escape out the front door at about 10:45 p.m., still carrying the bloody knife, a source said.
“If those detectives hadn’t been in the area, he could have gotten away with it,” the source said.
“It’s very hard to track a suspect with no criminal history. And this suspect was a drifter, a nomad. It would have been very hard.”

A neighbor Amy Chang, 15, said she ran outside when she heard sirens, and saw EMTs struggling in vain to save one of the children .

“He was wearing yellow pajamas,” she recalled. “He was bloody. They were trying to help him. But he wasn’t moving. He had bandages on his legs. “To kill a kid, it’s the worst.”
Chen also allegedly attacked two cops while he was being questioned in the 66th Precinct station house.

A source said that while one of his hands was cuffed to a table, Chen kicked the table into a sergeant serving as an interpreter, knocking him to the floor.

Chen then used his free hand to punch a detective, the source said.
He was charged with one count of first-degree murder, four counts of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree assault, five counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and resisting arrest.

Chen looked calm and said nothing as he was walked out of the station house Sunday evening.
A distraught cousin of the dead mom recalled having met Chen when he lived with the victims’ family in the past and said Chen had worked as a cook but couldn’t hold down a job.

“He’s lazy. He doesn’t work too hard,” Gao Yun, 29, said after stumbling upon the crime scene Sunday and breaking down in sobs when cops told her what had happened.
Yun said Chen most recently was working at a restaurant in another state but had been fired about two weeks ago.

“The guy is crazy,” Yun added, twirling her index finger next to her right temple.
Banks said Chen has been “bouncing around” since entering the United States in 2004, first living for a time in Chinatown in Manhattan before moving to Chicago.
At some point, he returned to New York and was living with Li’s family for eight to 10 days before the carnage, Banks said.

Chen has no known history of mental illness and no arrest record in New York City, Banks said, adding that cops were checking to see whether he has ever been busted elsewhere in the country.
Additional reporting by Kathryn Cusma, Adam Janos, Antonio Antenucci and Daniel Prendergast

Sen. Dick Durbin removes Facebook post after White House blunder

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, posted on his Facebook page on Oct. 20 that at a meeting with Obama during the government shutdown, a "GOP House Leader told the president: I can't even stand to look at you." Durbin was not at the meeting, but he says his source was a White House staffer who briefed him.



























SEPT. 4, 2013 FILE PHOTO

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday removed a Facebook post that erroneously claimed a GOP leader had told the president, "I can't even stand to look at you," saying he's satisfied that people now know he's not to blame for the mistake.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday removed a Facebook post that erroneously claimed a GOP leader had told the president, "I can't even stand to look at you," saying he's satisfied that people now know he's not to blame for the mistake.

The decision resolves a point of tension between the White House and one of President Barack Obama's most loyal defenders. The White House says the error stemmed from a "miscommunication."

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, posted on his Facebook page on Oct. 20 that at a meeting with Obama during the government shutdown, a "GOP House Leader told the president: I can't even stand to look at you." Durbin was not at the meeting, but he says his source was a White House staffer who briefed him.

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The post drew rebukes from Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, who said no such statement was made. Though the White House quickly said the information was wrong, Durbin had declined to remove the post until Monday.

"They gave me a bad quote and then they said it didn't occur," Durbin said Monday, speaking to reporters after he and U.S. Sen. John McCain spoke to a civic group about immigration reform in Chicago. "Now it's history, it's behind us."

The White House says the misunderstanding originated when White House officials gave Senate Democrats a summary of a meeting Obama had held with House Republicans.

Facebook

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, posted on his Facebook page on Oct. 20 that at a meeting with Obama during the government shutdown, a "GOP House Leader told the president: I can't even stand to look at you." Durbin was not at the meeting, but he says his source was a White House staffer who briefed him.

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"There was a miscommunication when the White House read out that meeting to Senate Democrats, and we regret the misunderstanding," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding that the quote was not accurate.

Durbin said Monday that there was never any misunderstanding, at least not on his part. He also said when a "staffer in the White House" told him and other senators about the meeting, he found the comments so "earth-shattering" that he wrote them down verbatim.

Durbin, one of the president's most loyal defenders, said when the White House admitted it had "misled members of Congress," he posted that on his Facebook page. But he was not about to take down the original post, at least not for a while.

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"If I'd have raced to take it off, you (the media) would have done that story too: 'Durbin races to take this off.' I wanted to put into context how I got into this situation," he said.

Durbin said Monday that he's now satisfied that it's clear he didn't make up the quote. Within a couple of hours, the only evidence of the dispute was a Facebook post in which Durbin expressed his appreciation for "this clarification from the White House."
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