Alternative Title For New Age Film:
Death of Innocence
Profile photo from Birth Of Innocence Facebook page.
"BIRTH OF INNOCENCE is a feature-length narrated film by Mac Parker about the power in every single one of us, waiting to be brought into our lives through our innocence..." -- Facebook page for BOI
[ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birth-of-Innocence/115493931813189 ]
"For most of my adult life, I have been an ambassador for Vermont through my stories, my writing, and my films... Birth of Innocence is my most ambitious project yet, and my hope is that it too will reflect beautifully on our state and our people. How ironic that an agency of this state I love so much is now spending taxpayers’ money trying to prove that I’m a bad guy." -- Mac Parker, quoted from his written statement, article "State Files New Charges Against Filmmaker Mac Parker" by Shay Totton, Seven Days reporter, April 23, 2010
[ http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010/04/state-files-new-charges-against-filmmaker-mac-parker.html ]
"Mac's vision is as pure and inspiring as ever. It's guiding this project as surely as a captain steers his ship, and I believe that with a little love, luck and compassionate determination, the manifestation of this film is near at hand." -- Commenter, April 9, 2011, Facebook page for "Birth of Innocence" movie project (link listed above)
"The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated today that a federal grand jury has returned an 18-count indictment charging Louis James Soteriou, 54, of Middlebury, Connecticut, with wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering offenses relating to his role in the “Birth of Innocence” movie project. The United States attorney also filed today a plea agreement executed by Malcolm “Mac” Parker, 54, of Addison, Vermont, pursuant to which Parker agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and a tax crime in connection with this same movie project. Under that agreement, Parker agreed to cooperate with the United States in its prosecution of Soteriou." -- U.S. Department of Justice, FBI Press Release, March 16, 2012
[ http://www.fbi.gov/albany/press-releases/2012/multi-million-dollar-birth-of-innocence-fraud-prosecution-announced ]
     RUTLAND, Vt. - Mac Parker left the Rutland Federal Courthouse Wednesday afternoon on his own recognizance, after admitting his role in what prosecutors call a $28 million Ponzi scheme.
     He didn't want to talk with us, but investors like Pedie and Armond Brisson say they thought they were investing in their neighbor.
     "My life's earnings; I farmed it for 50 years and he's got it all," Armond Brisson said. "I told many friends and then some of them invested, many did, and many are ripped at me right now because they got burned..."
     "I don't understand why Mac couldn't see that there's no connection between spirituality and money," Pedie O'Brien Brisson said.
-- WCAX-TV news story, Apr 11, 2012, "Vt moviemaker pleads guilty in film fraud scheme"
[ http://www.wcax.com/story/17388331/mac-parker-pleads-guilty-in-film-fraud-scheme ]
"...Let's get behind Birth of Innocence and tell BISHCA (VT Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration) to leave him alone! They are wasting our tax dollars on attacking a beautiful project and its humble creator--huh? in this atmosphere of desperately trying to balance the state budget, they're wasting how many hundreds of thousands of dollars on this assault?" -- Commenter, May 12, 2010, BOI Facebook page.
Comments
I can see how this would make attractive bait for a Ponzi scheme.
BTW, I think a better alternate title would be Springtime for Hitler.