Attorneys for Suspected Killer of Takeoff Wants $1M Bond Reduced to $300K, Judge Denies Request
The man accused of killing Migos rapper Takeoff asked to have his $1 million bond reduced but has been denied by a Houston judge.
According to ABC 13 Eyewitness News, Patrick Xavier Clark, the suspected gunman in the death of the popular recording artist, had his bond reduction request denied by Judge Josh Hill. He was initially held on a $2 million bond, but during Clark’s last court appearance, the judge did lower the amount to $1 million.
The attorneys for Clark expected the judge to reduce the amount and were preparing for a different decision.
“We’re very surprised by (that decision),” Letitia Quinones, Clark’s attorney, stated Wednesday.
The last appearance was done via Zoom conference.
The original bail amount was set at $2 million, but the defense attorneys for the suspect asserted that the amount was unconstitutional because he could not afford it. After reducing the amount by 50%, Clark’s attorney still felt that amount was too much for the suspect.
“A couple of weeks ago, the judge laid out some conditions and requirements he wanted the defense to meet,” Quinones said. “We believe we’ve satisfied each one of those requirements.”
But the judge stated that Clark assured him that he would be able to pay the bond at the $1 million price tag and that there were bond companies that would help in securing do so. He denied the request to lower it to $300,000 and kept it at $1 million. Judge Hill told the attorneys that they could file an appeal where he may reduce the amount at a later date.
“We plan to take every remedy available by law for Mr. Clark,” Quinones said. “It’s the high-profile nature of this case that’s really affected the constitutional rights of Mr. Clark.”
Prosecutors told the judge that Clark was misleading the court about his financial assets. Hill requested that Clark turn in his passport as he is still considered a flight risk. He questioned why Clark could not post the bond amount after recorded phone calls from jail stating that he said the $2 million was doable.
Clark, accused and arrested for the November killing of Takeoff,one-third of the Atlanta hip-hop group Migos, proclaimed his innocence at his first court appearance.
According to The Associated Press, the attorney for 33-year-old Clark, also known as DJ Pat, a local Houston DJ, said her client was not the person who pulled the trigger.
According to ABC13 News, the Houston DJ applied for an emergency passport before he was arrested on Dec. 1. He reportedly had a large amount of cash when he was arrested. When apprehended, he had the paperwork he had filed for an expedited passport and a flight booked to fly to Mexico.
Quinones stated that her client is innocent and to allow the system to do its part.
According to TMZ, the killing of Takeoff took place on Nov. 1 at the 810 Billiards & Bowling Houston Bowling Alley. He was there with his uncle, Quavo, and fellow Migos group member to celebrate the birthday of Jas Prince on the night of the tragedy.
T.D. Jakes’ Offender Reentry Initiative Equipped for National Expansion After Helping Close Eight Prisons
Nationally revered, trusted and successful prisoner reentry program—Texas Offender Reentry Initiative (T.O.R.I.)—celebrated the graduation of 98 program participants on Friday, Dec. 16.
The luncheon, hosted by T.D. Jakes, featured Grammy ® award-winning artist Fantasia Barrino Taylor and Kendall Taylor onstage for an in-depth conversation. Kendall Taylor, who was once a returning citizen and now a notable CEO, shared the stage with his wife to encourage and help inform graduates of their road ahead. T.O.R.I. is prepared to become a knowledge partner and help other national organizations replicate the Texas-based organization’s success.
(Image: Facebook @medctori)
The in-depth conversation between Fantasia, Taylor and Jakes touched on criminal justice reform, returning citizens and how programs like T.O.R.I. are helping them across Texas and soon across the United States. Over the last eight years T.O.R.I has helped the state of Texas, which incarcerates the most people in the U.S., close eight prisons.
Taylor spoke about how he still grapples with his traumatic past: “There are still moments—living the red-carpet life, sitting on the house on the hill, only black people in the community—where I could still be going to the mailbox feeling anxiety. But I had to let some things go. I finally just realized I’m not at war anymore.”
T.O.R.I., which is celebrating its 18th anniversary this year, has become a nationally revered and trusted knowledge partner with a proven successful model of rehabilitative and recuperative justice that has directly impacted the lives of some 300,000 men, women and their families. The White House, the Department of Justice, Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safe and National Security, AT&T and Wal-Mart are some of the government and corporate entities that have either consulted or collaborated with T.O.R.I. to glean major learnings from the Dallas-based initiative. T.O.R.I. is uniquely poised to align with key partners looking for programming and curriculum that distinctively speaks to the ever-growing needs and inequality realities facing many families across the U.S. T.O.R.I has a 16% recidivism rate, much lower than the national average of over 65%.
T.O.R.I. provides returning citizens stability through assistance in employment, education, housing, healthcare, spiritual guidance and family unification. The mission of T.O.R.I. is to guide and empower ex-offenders to maximize their potential, increasing their opportunities for successful reintegration into society and to become productive citizens of their communities.
The U.S. has approximately two million people incarcerated. With only five percent of the world’s population, 16% of all incarcerated people in the world are in the U.S. The need is critical for T.O.R.I. to share its knowledge and expertise with similar organizations to successfully help acclimate returning citizens and reduce the national recidivism rate.
About Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative
Launched in January 2005 to provide hope in the form of tangible solutions, the Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative’s (T.O.R.I.) goal is to provide stability and security for returning citizens. Through assistance in employment, education, housing, healthcare, spiritual guidance and family unification, T.O.R.I. addresses the individual needs and helps former inmates acclimate back into society. To date, T.O.R.I. has served over 35,000 formerly incarcerated adults across the state of Texas. T.D. Jakes is the visionary and chief architect behind T.O.R.I.
About The Potter’s House
Located in Dallas, The Potter’s House is a 30,000-member nondenominational, multicultural church and humanitarian organization led by Bishop T. D. Jakes, who was twice featured on the cover of Time magazine as “America’s Best Preacher” and as one of the nation’s “25 most influential evangelicals.” The Potter’s House has four locations, The Potter’s House of Dallas, The Potter’s House of Fort Worth, The Potter’s House of North Dallas, and The Potter’s House OneLA, and a Spanish language church, Casa de Fe. More information can be found at ThePottersHouse.org.
Reginald F. Lewis Foundation Makes $5 Million Commitment to Obama Foundation
The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation (RFLF), one of the oldest African American and Asian private foundations in the world, is pleased to announce a milestone $5 million grant to the Barack Obama Foundation (https://www.obama.org) to support their mission to inspire, empower, and connect the next generation of leaders.
The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation’s grant will go toward supporting the Obama Foundation’s general operations and impact work, including support for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, and other national and global programs like the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, which addresses persistent opportunity gaps boys and young men of color face in society and the workforce, and the Girls Opportunity Alliance, an international initiative that seeks to empower adolescent girls around the world through education, enabling them to achieve their full potential and transform their families, communities, and countries.
“It is an honor to contribute to President Obama’s ongoing work to educate and empower young people to become leaders in their communities and around the world,” said Loida Lewis, Chair of The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation and widow to the late entrepreneur Reginald Lewis.
“I know President Obama attended a speech Mr. Lewis gave at Harvard Law School while the President was there studying for his law degree. Both Mr. Lewis and the President show how education helps exceptional people break barriers and accomplish wonderful things, and I know, if he was still here, Mr. Lewis would be proud to help President Obama carry his work and legacy forward.”
“We are incredibly grateful for the generous support from The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation. It’s through vital partnerships like this that we are able to build sustainable programming at the Obama Foundation centered around supporting boys and young men of color and girls all over the world through education,” said Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett.
In partnership with the Obama Foundation, a room at the future Obama Presidential Center will be named in memory of Mr. Lewis, with the hope of continuing to preserve his ongoing legacy and inspire others for years to come. Mr. Lewis, a pioneering financier, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, has been selected by President Obama as an honoree alongside other influential figures “on whose shoulders we stand” and whose significant contributions to society advanced justice and equality in America.
The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation and the Obama Foundation are excited to continue working together in the pursuit of education, cultural enrichment, and positive change.
Founder of Black-Owned Natural Beauty Brand Expands, Opens First New Distribution Center in Delaware
Jocelyne Firmin, founder and CEO of Kiyamel, a Black-owned company that creates natural bath and body products for babies and adults, has opened its first new distribution center in Dagsboro, Delaware.
The distribution center officially opened in July, and the company has since also hired new staff members to assist with business proficiency.
With this new distribution center, Kiyamel will be able to expand its operations, creating more opportunities for the company to conduct big business with retail stores in the upcoming months. Kiyamel’s distribution center stands as the headquarters for the company’s many natural products including oils, body butters, and soaps. The distribution center also features a new storefront, Eczema Store. Kiyamel celebrated the grand opening of the storefront with customers and the community.
“The opening of this distribution center is huge for Kiyamel. With the distribution center, we now have the capacity to increase our rates of production. We will be able to expand our distribution to meet our growing demand and we will even be able to fulfill retail store orders throughout the country,” said Firmin.
About
Jocelyne Firmin says that Kiyamel started as a first-time mother’s quest to find an all-natural solution to skin sensitivities that she and her child were facing. The company was founded in Maryland in January 2021 before it moved to Millsboro, Delaware. Kiyamel creates safe and healthy plant-based products that are effective for children and parents with skin sensitivities. Kiyamel products are clinically tested and accepted by the National Eczema Association. With the new distribution center in Dagsboro, Kiyamel plans to continue to produce high-quality natural products for babies and parents.
For more information about Kiyamel, visit Kiyamel.com
To keep up with the latest updates from Kiyamel, follow their Instagram at @KiyamelNaturalProducts
This Digital Workspace Is A Project Management Powerhouse
Project management is one of the most popular fields for myriad reasons.
Not only does it allow those who are focus-driven to hone in and oversee their undertakings blossom from idea to reality, but some of the most sought-after project managers can command quite the salary for their expertise.
Exceptional project managers, however, rely upon a comprehensive and all-encompassing online toolkit to assist with their efforts. Officio.work provides that and much more.
Officio.work is your one-stop shop for project management, remote work, collaboration invoicing and more. It’s designed for small businesses and teams. It works by offering an electronic suite where users can manage their business tasks effectively through a suite of applications that are customizable, efficient and easy to use.
The software has functions that allow users to Integrate & simplify financial tracking and reports, Manage remote work – track time, attendance and activities, and customize team structure and management, among other tools.
The business plan allows up to 750MBs of storage, unlimited clients, employee access of up to 20, time logs, invoices and payments, and many other options to boost efficiency.
Officio.work Digital Workspace is rated 5 stars on Product Hunt and 4.9 stars on Trustpilot. The software can be accessed on desktop devices that feature modern browsers. Updates are included, ensuring users have the latest version of the software.
Officio.work has developed a single platform that provides cost-effective solutions that help maintain management control over sensitive information while providing the best user experience. Purchase it today.
Soccer Star Pele, Brazilian Legend of the Beautiful Game, Dies at 82
Pele, the legendary Brazilian soccer player who rose from barefoot poverty to become one of the greatest and best-known athletes in modern history, died on Thursday at the age of 82.
Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital, where Pele was undergoing treatment, said he died at 3:27 p.m. “due to multiple organ failures resulting from the progression of colon cancer associated with his previous medical condition.”
The death of the only man to win the World Cup three times as a player was confirmed on his Instagram account.
“Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pele, who peacefully passed away today,” it read, adding he had “enchanted the world with his genius in sport, stopped a war, carried out social works all over the world and spread what he most believed to be the cure for all our problems: love.”
Tributes poured in from across the worlds of sport, politics and popular culture for a figure who epitomized Brazil’s dominance of the beautiful game.
The office of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who leaves office on Sunday after four years in power, said in a statement that Pele was “a great citizen and patriot, raising the name of Brazil wherever he went.”
Bolsonaro’s incoming successor, President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wrote on Twitter that “few Brazilians carried the name of our country as far as he did.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Pele’s legacy would live forever.
“The game. The king. Eternity,” Macron tweeted.
Pele had been undergoing chemotherapy since he had a tumor removed from his colon in September 2021.
He also had difficulty walking unaided since an unsuccessful hip operation in 2012. In February 2020, on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic, his son Edinho said Pele’s ailing physical state had left him depressed.
Pele, whose given name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, joined Santos in 1956 and turned the small coastal club into one of the most famous names in football. A wake is expected to be held at Santos’ Urbano Caldeira stadium, most commonly known as Vila Belmiro, on Monday, the club’s press officer said.
In addition to a host of regional and national titles, Pele won two Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League, and two Intercontinental Cups, the annual tournament held between the best teams in Europe and South America.
He took home three World Cup winner’s medals, the first time as a 17-year-old in Sweden in 1958, the second in Chile four years later – even though he missed most of the tournament through injury – and the third in Mexico in 1970, when he led what is considered to be one of the greatest sides ever to play the game.
He retired from Santos in 1974 but a year later made a surprise comeback by signing a lucrative deal to join the New York Cosmos in the then nascent North American Soccer League.
In a glorious 21-year career he scored 1,283 goals.
Pele, though, transcended soccer, like no player before or since, and he became one of the first global icons of the 20th century.
With his winning smile and an aw-shucks humility that charmed legions of fans, he was better known than many Hollywood stars, popes or presidents – many if not most of whom he met during a six-decade-long career as player and corporate pitchman.
“I am sad, but I am also proud to be Brazilian, to be from Pele’s country, a guy who was a great athlete,” said Ciro Campos, a 49-year-old biologist in Rio de Janeiro. “And also off the field, he was a cool person, not an arrogant athlete.”
Pele credited his one-of-a-kind mix of talent, creative genius and technical skill to a youth spent playing pick-up games in small-town Brazil, often using grapefruit or wadded-up rags because his family could not afford a real ball.
Pele was named “Athlete of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee, co-“Football Player of the Century” by world soccer body FIFA, and a “national treasure” by Brazil’s government.
His celebrity was often overwhelming. Grown adults broke down crying in his presence with regularity. As a player, souvenir-seeking fans often rushed the field following games and tore off his shorts, socks and even underwear.
His house in Brazil was less than a mile from a beach, but he didn’t go there for some two decades because of fear of crowds.
Yet even in unguarded moments among friends, he rarely complained. He believed that his talent was a divine gift, and he spoke movingly about how soccer allowed him to travel the world, bring cheer to cancer patients and survivors of wars and famine, and provide for a family that, growing up, often did not know the source of their next meal.
“God gave me this ability for one reason: To make people happy,” he said during a 2013 interview with Reuters. “No matter what I did, I tried not to forget that.”
Brazil’s CBF soccer federation said “Pele was much more than the greatest sportsman of all time … The King of Soccer was the ultimate exponent of a victorious Brazil.”
Kylian Mbappé, the French star many view as the current best soccer player in the world, also offered his condolences.
“The king of football has left us but his legacy will never be forgotten,” he wrote on Twitter. “RIP KING.”
(Reporting by Andrew Downie and Gabriel Araujo; Additional reporting by Peter Frontini, Carolina Pulice and Sergio Queiroz; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Daniel Wallis)
Operation Hope Celebrates 30 Years of Advancing Financial Empowerment As it Sets New Black Wealth Agenda
Roughly 30 years ago, South Central Los Angeles went up in flames.
Several days of rioting sparked on April 29, 1992, in response to the acquittal of four white policemen tied to the brutal beating of Rodney King, an unarmed Black motorist, a year earlier. The vicious beating was caught on film and eventually aired on networks for the entire nation to witness. Within hours of the announcement of the acquittal from the jury—which did not have a single Black juror—Los Angeles was engulfed in one of the worst civil disruptions in American history: with 50 people killed, more than 2,300 injured and about 1,100 damaged buildings at the cost of about $1 billion. Among its most devastated communities: South Central L.A.
From those ashes rose an organization committed to economic empowerment and social justice. That thrust was voiced by enterprising John Hope Bryant when he founded Operation HOPE Inc. on May 5 of that year to change the status of legions locked in poverty. He began his campaign to move “from civil rights in the streets to silver rights in the suites” with a Bankers Bus tour to encourage investment within low-income communities by taking a small group of financial executives throughout distressed areas of L.A, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, among other urban hubs.
Over the past three decades, Bryant has built the largest nonprofit dedicated to financial education and building partnerships with some of the nation’s financial services leviathans to meet its mission: Helping the poor and disenfranchised gain pathways to opportunity and wealth.
A few weeks ago, I attended the Annual Hope Global Forums held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta in the ballroom where Martin Luther King, Jr. launched the final campaign of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1967, months before an assassin’s bullet slew the civil rights leader. It was the first in-person gathering since the pandemic and two years after the slaying of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers—this time, the act of police misconduct was captured on video via cell phone, viewed throughout the globe in real-time, and initiated a renewed call for an end to systemic discrimination and a series of corporate equity pledges.
(Image: Courtesy of Operation HOPE)
This year’s event not only celebrated Operation HOPE’s three decades of achievements of serving more than 4 million individuals and directing more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into underserved communities nationwide, but it also sought to set the wealth agenda for Black Americans for 2023—and beyond. The Forum boasted roughly 5,000 delegates from 40 countries and included more than 1 million online viewers. Bryant asserts that the largest event of its kind has been designed “to reimagine the global economy, so the benefits and opportunities of free enterprise are extended to everyone.”
As with previous forums, it presented an eclectic group of powerhouse speakers such as civil rights legend Ambassador Andrew Young, Bishop T.D. Jakes, rapper-entrepreneur Killer Mike, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, MSNBC President Rashida Jones, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastien, former Chief of Staff for Donald Trump, Mick Mulvaney, NASCAR President Steve Phelps, NBA Hall of Famer and entrepreneur Grant Hill, and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), who had recently won a full term after defeating Republican and former Dallas Cowboys running back Herschel Walker in a contentious run-off election.
Under the theme, “Bridging The Divide, “this year’s forum focused on finding solutions through wealth-building strategies, inclusive economics, and across-the-board equitable access. “The next move is about opportunity. The first Reconstruction in the 1800s focused on freedom. The second Reconstruction in the 1960s was about access. The third Reconstruction—2020 to 2030—will be about opportunity,” Bryant told the audience in the jam-packed ballroom. “You’re living in a moment of history.”
“Homeownership is the No. 1 way to build wealth”
That quote from Bryant summed up the wealth-building discussion—and for good reason. The yawning homeownership divide between Black and white families is now wider than it was more than 60 years ago, according to US Census Data. In 2022, 74.6% of white households owned homes versus 45.3% of Black households, a gap of more than 29 points. In 1960, the white homeownership rate was 65%, compared to the Black rate at 38%, a 27-point gap—before the 1968 Fair Housing Act and other civil rights legislation were enacted to remedy housing discrimination and create equitable opportunities.
During the opening plenary, Bryant interviewed Kristy Fercho, Wells Fargo’s Head of Diverse Segments, Representation and Inclusion, about the expansion of Black homeownership. Without further elaboration, Bryant mentioned that Wells Fargo, a long-time sponsor, “has a complicated history” and that he has held conversations with its CEO Charles W. Scharf about the bank’s corrective action in recent years.
Fercho maintains the main reasons she agreed to join the bank in 2021, a year after the George Floyd tragedy: “I want to put more Blacks in homes. Homeownership is still the single largest purchase we will make [and] still the best pathway we have to generational wealth.” Fercho says she has taken the lead in the development and execution of the bank’s $150 million program to help roughly 60,000 Black customers refinance their homes and reduce their mortgage rates.
Among the commitments Fercho announced was the creation of 120 new HOPE Inside locations to offer financial education services to enable community members to boost savings, improve credit scores, and shrink debt to convert more renters into homeowners.
Operation HOPE currently has 200 such locations that provide financial counseling at various branches and workplaces of banking and corporate partners, including Bank of America, Truist, Synchrony, Delta, and UPS, among scores of others.
To meet the homeownership mandate, Bank of America has also pledged Operation Hope to provide free financial counseling in 180 financial centers across 17 U.S. markets.
Bryant also brought together business leaders to discuss financial education’s value and ensure that youth—from K-college—can learn about money matters as an academic requirement. Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon serves as Financial Literacy For All co-chair, which Bryant launched as a joint initiative with the big box retailer, Bank of America, Disney, and other corporations.
Strengthening Black businesses
Operation HOPE announced the continued expansion of its 1 Million Black Business (1MBB) initiative and has supported more than 155,000 unique businesses through its HOPE Inside network and 1MBB partners. According to the soon-to-be-released 1MBB 2022 Impact Report, the program has helped about 5% of all Black-owned businesses in the U.S. thus far.
Through its alliance with Shopify, Operation Hope launched the initiative in October 2020 to help create and support up to 1 million new Black-owned businesses by 2030. Shopify committed resources valued at approximately $130 million. In addition, Operation HOPE has built a coalition of more than 60 other corporate, government, and private partners, including SBA, the NFL, MasterCard, Comcast, and Clark Atlanta University.
The Forum also featured the second annual 1MBB Pitch Competition, featuring four innovative Black entrepreneurs who shared their personal and business journeys for the opportunity to win a total of $50,000. Operation Hope and Shopify developed the competition, with PayPal as its title sponsor.
Following a nationwide competition, the 2nd annual 1MBB pitch finalists were Kalene McElveen, owner of Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts, which took first-place honors with a $2,500 grant from Shopify and $15,000 from PayPal; Jazmin Richards, founder and CEO of BLK Sunflowers. A candle manufacturer, which gained second place and a $2,500 grant from Shopify and $10,000 from PayPal; Joshua Dixon, founder and designer of apparel maker Admire Wear, who won a $2,500 grant from Shopify and $8,000 from PayPal; and Stacy Howell, owner of Woodhouse Spa, who took home a $2,500 grant from Shopify and $7,000 from PayPal.
In Bryant’s conversation with Jakes, the senior pastor of the Dallas-based megachurch Potters House applauded the need to launch and support Black entrepreneurial endeavors. Still, he asserted the need for Black firms to scale up for greater impact as viable employment and investment sources.
“One of the problems with our businesses is that they have two to three employees at most. They’re so busy doing the work, they’re not thinking about the business,” says Jakes. “I have to strategize the business. I have to integrate the business. They don’t understand the difference between busyness and business.”
Bryant and Operation HOPE will continue emphasizing the most vital plank for the next wealth agenda: Opportunity.
Black Raleigh Businessman Provides Space and Equipment for Entrepreneurs To Create and Sell
This businessman is knocking down barriers that hold new entrepreneurs back in their early stages.
Johnny Hackett Jr. runs The Factory in Raleigh, North Carolina, a pioneer co-manufacturing space for business owners to create products.
According to CBS 17, the space supports new business owners who may not have enough space at home to complete their developing ideas.
“Traditional co-working spaces are more for the office space or internet [access], whereas many business owners needed a place to go create,” said Hackett.
The Factory offers a more affordable alternative, as Hackett observed the expensive costs other spaces were charging to rent their spaces and equipment.
“That hurdle was removed, and then we removed another hurdle in terms of accessing this equipment that you need to create this product,” Hackett said.
Hackett’s Factory offers business owners the equipment and computer software necessary for creators to put their ideas to work. The space includes tools for candle making, cosmetics, printing T-shirts, photography, or working in digital design.
“As a new business owner with a new idea, you can come here and get that idea off the ground,” said Hackett.
Additionally, the Factory’s staff is equipped to provide training for those who need guidance using the equipment.
Hackett also allows entrepreneurs to sell their products directly out of his Black Friday Market storefront, while others can house their products with Hackett even though they are produced in other spaces.
The businessman shared statistics reflecting the Factory’s performance and success. He said The Factory has supported nearly 100 businesses in less than a year from the opening date. Within the last four months, entrepreneurs of the Factory have sold more than $250,000 worth of products.
According to a Shopifysurvey, business owners spend an average of $40,000 within their first year of launching, with a great percentage of their funds going toward space and equipment.
The Factory offers business owners membership for a smaller fee.
Controversial Diamond Company De Beers Appoints Its First Majority Black Sightholder
De Beers has appointed Molefi Letsiki, who owns Molefi Letsiki Diamonds in Johannesburg, South Africa, as its first majority-Black sightholder authorized to purchase rough diamonds.
Israeli Diamond reports Letsiki is a second-generation diamantaire who graduated from the De Beers Enterprise Development Project for Diamond Beneficiation, which was created to help “historically disadvantaged South Africans” develop sustainable businesses and qualify for sightholder status.
Molefi Letsiki Diamond was among the companies in the first cohort of businesses in the initiative. De Beers Group operations managing director Moses Madondo congratulated Letsiki on his history-making appointment.
“On behalf of De Beers, I wish to congratulate Molefi on this momentous achievement. It was our ultimate goal when we launched the Enterprise Development Project to have the project members become our sightholders,” Madondo said, according to Israeli Diamond.
IDEX Online reports Molefi Letsiki Diamonds was established in 2005 as a custom-made jewelry manufacturing business and will be among 60 businesses authorized to attend 10 sights a year in Botswana beginning Jan. 1, 2023, to purchase the company’s rough diamonds.
According to its site, De Beers is one of the world’s leading diamond companies with expertise in diamond exploration, mining, grading, marketing, and retail. The company employs more than 20,000 people worldwide, many based in source countries of Botswana, Canada, Namibia, and South Africa. Earlier this fall, the company namedLupita Nyong’o as a global ambassador.
De Beers has been in the jewelry business for more than a century, and its brands include Forevermark and Libert’aime by Forevermark.
Additionally, in 2018 the multinational jewelry company launched a five-year pilot program to improve South Africa’s schools and the education of its children. In 2001, the company also launched a first-of-its-kind HIV and AIDS Policy and HIV Disease Management program offering free anti-retroviral treatment to De Beers employees and their spouses. The program continues today and has expanded to other areas in South Africa.
No Need For A Special Occasion: Serena Williams Throws Daughter Surprise Moana-Themed Party
You don’t always need a special reason to get your party on.
Tennis champion Serena Williams was feeling party vibes when she decided to throw her 5-year-old daughter, Olympia, a surprise party out of the blue.
According to Daily Mail, Williams surprised her daughter with a Moana-themed get-together on Wednesday, just for fun.
“Sometimes we surprise @olympiaohanian with parties. We don’t need a reason or a special occasion we make everyday as special and memorable as we can. Also her mama fast….,” Williams captioned a photo she shared with her followers on Instagram.
Williams appeared in the photo posing with Olympia, her husband and tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, and a woman dressed as Moana. They stood together underneath a balloon arch patterned with blue, purple, pink, and green colors.
Williams had her hair gathered into a high ponytail, showing off her natural face with a light beat.
Her daughter posed for multiple photos in a light pink tee, multicolored leggings, and a pair of white sneaks.
In a couple of the photos, the 41-year-old superstar athlete can be seen posing back-to-back with the actress who showed up as Moana. Olympia and Ohanian reflected similar poses beside them.
“Still can’t believe Moana was willing to come all the way from Motunui,” Ohanian commented under the post.
Williams had her daughter Olympia with Ohanian during the middle of her 2017 tennis career.
Olympia seems to be embracing her mother’s athletic abilities.
People reported that the 5-year-old posed in a recent photo shared on her Instagram, flexing her muscles as she propped one foot up on a soccer ball.
Williams and her husband announced Olympia had a stake in the L.A.-based women’s soccer team, Angel City Football Club, making her the youngest co-owner in professional sports.
