By M. Kotch

As the year draws to a close, we’ve rounded up the top ten funeral scams of 2009. It’s important to note that the majority of funeral homes, directors and members of the funeral industry are honest and provide much-needed services.  However, it’s also wise to read about recent scandals and scams to avoid falling victim to one.

1.    Augusta, Georgia: Dent’s Undertaking Establishment is ordered to close in May 2009 and its owner, Frank Griffin, files for bankruptcy leaving no money for prepaid funerals. With liens against the property adding up to more than the property’s worth, the undertaker is also facing twenty lawsuits from customers who had prepaid for their funerals. Allegedly, Dent’s had not placed the prepaid funeral money in a trust in accordance with the laws of the state of Georgia.

2.    Columbia, Missouri: A funeral director gave family members the wrong cremated remains before losing his funeral director’s and embalmer’s licenses along with his son, who was also implicated. The owner of the Warren Funeral Chapel faces up to four years in prison after pleading guilty to charges. Harold Warren Sr. pled guilty to three charges including unlawful merchandising practices and misrepresenting the sale of funeral and cremation services. The Warren Funeral Chapel was found unsanitary and shut down by the state of Missouri in 2008.

3.    Uniondale, New York: After her son was buried for 12 years, a Long Island woman discovers another body atop her son’s at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale. She noticed that the earth by her son’s gravesite had been recently dug up and notified officials. Though newspaper reports indicate the incident was due to a clerical error, the cemetery did not provide a satisfactory response to Nicole Pailliere, the deceased’s mother. Greenfield Cemetery also did not notify the other family of the incident or about moving the remains to another site.

4.    Najaf, Iraq: Body smugglers in Iraq trade money for cadavers, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials. The Valley of the Peace in Najaf is where many Shiites hope to be buried; it costs thousand of dollars in fees and taxes to legally bury remains in the sacred Shiite site, but many smugglers risk traveling the same route as drug and arm dealers to smuggle the bodies for burial.  The trade had been dormant for the past 30 years but has become active again after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

5.    Illinois: Merrill Lynch agrees to pay the state of Illinois a settlement worth $18 million to end a state inquiry. Merrill Lynch had been investigated by the state for the depletion of a trust the company was overseeing; the funds were meant to pay for consumer funerals. Once valued at $300 million, the trust has carried a deficit of $50 million since 2008. The company had invested money in complex life-insurance policies and received $32 million in premiums. The settlement will be distributed amongst 47,000 individuals who purchased prepaid plans.

6.    National: Last year the Federal Trade Commission found that one out of every four funeral homes was in serious violation of government regulations. The FTC sent 104 undercover inspectors into seven states and found North Arkansas and San Antonio, Texas to be the worst offenders. To avoid dealing with an unscrupulous funeral home, check out the FTC’s Web site and read our article on where to start when planning a funeral.

7.    Arlington, Virginia: The family of retired Colonel Andrew DeGraff is suing the National Funeral home and its Texas-based parent company for $60 million in damages. The remains of the retired army colonial were left in an unrefrigerated garage for months while awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The National Funeral Home had previously been on probation and fined after inspections revealed sanitary violations. In 2003, NFH’s parent company, Service Corporation International, settled a class action lawsuit by paying $100 million to 700 families that accused the company of misplacing bodies and other violations.

8.    Newark, New Jersey: Two funeral directors turned in their licenses after it was made known they planned to harvest body parts without permission.  According to the New Jersey Attorney General the two men have been banned from the funeral industry in the state and from applying for any related licenses in the future. Stephen K. Finley owned Berardinelli Forest Hill Memorial Home and Funeraria Santa Cruz; Robert J. Maitner Jr. owned Kiernan Funeral Home and Maitner Cremation Services. Finley and Maitner will also pay $40,000 and $100,000, respectively, in civil penalties.

9.    Alsip, Illinois: A cemetery manager and three gravediggers face up to 30 years in prison for digging up bodies and reselling the plots. Some families of those buried at Burr Oak Cemetery found no trace of their loved ones’ headstones. According to prosecutors, manager Carolyn Towns and gravediggers Terrence Nicks, Maurice Dailey and Keith Nicks split up as much as $300,000 from reselling the plots. Perpetua Incorporated, the company that owns the cemetery, had contacted authorities about dubious financial management.

10.    Dane County, Wisconsin: According to Dane County Police, burglars are using funeral announcements and obituaries to coordinate break-ins into homes while mourners are attending a funeral or wake.

These scams should serve as a reminder to always check with the Better Business Bureau before dealing with any company or service provider, conduct a simple engine search for news articles and ask for testimonials. Finally, our last scam provides an important lesson in this age of constant status and twitter updates: adjust privacy settings on any online accounts to ensure your information remains private.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 6:53 am and is filed under Planning a funeral. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.