LA Funeral Director pleads guilty to Preneed Bank Fraud-Your Funeral Guy

Shrevport Louisiana Intersections Image via Wikipedia

A Louisiana Funeral Director has pleaded Guilty to Preneed Bank Fraud. Prepaying can be dangerous. The danger is simply the Funeral Director Takes Your Money. This is more common than many would care to admit.

A Vivian man pleaded guilty on Friday to bank fraud and admitted to defrauding 65 victims of more than $400,000 in prepaid funeral and burial services.  William James McGuire, 63, owner and operator of McGuire Funeral Home in Vivian, La was entered in the plea in the U. S. District Court in Shreveport.

McGuire would place the customer’s funeral payment into a funeral trust account in the form of a certificate of deposit at a financial institution in which the certificate of deposit, including all earned interest, would be intended for the exclusive use and benefit of the funeral recipient. The certificate of deposit, which was payable upon the death of the funeral recipient, would bear the name of McGuire Funeral Home and the funeral recipient jointly

Beginning sometime in 2006 and continuing through 2007, McGuire began to fraudulently represent to AmSouth Bank and Regions Bank that a funeral recipient was deceased

via www.ksla.com

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The Media is not slamming the Funeral Industry lately-YourFuneralGuy

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The  media has not been slamming the Funeral Industry lately-instead the have been providing information on  the great recession and consumers funeral cost and the turn towards cremation.

Msn Money, The Wall Street Journal, CNN,  The NewYork Times, the Huffington Post and many local papers  have covered the subject of the rise of cremation and the fact that people want to save on caskets , and other funeral products to Save on a Funeral.

Recently i gave advice to a friend on Funeral Cost. They decided to have a memorial service at a Nursing Home Rather thee  Funeral Home.

Some Funeral Director websites like Connecting Directors.com and the Memorial Business Journal accuse the media continuing  be negative on the Funeral Industry by reporting scandal.

The fact is that Many Funeral Scandals do not make it into the Mainstream media. The Tale The Illinois Funeral Directors  Preneed Scandal is an example. The scandal was given extensive coverage in the Springfield, Illinois area but received minimal coverage in Chicago media and  no national media coverage.  The Burr Oak Cemetery Scandal, received extensive coverage in the Chicago area and other localities but little to no coverage in the National media

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World’s Largest Funeral Corp,Wrong Body,Wrong Grave Scandal-yourfuneralguy

Seal of Brookline Massachusetts where the scandal took place Image via Wikipedia

The World’s Largest Funeral Corporation Service Corporation International, NYSE:SCI has found it self in a wrong body wrong grave scandal. Worse yet it involved a  Jewish Burial. This all took place in  Massachusetts.

The article entitled in the Boston Herald  “Funeral BigWig recuses Self on Burial Inquiry”

The scandal has wide significance because the Individual Involved Kim L Perry, who is (was)the Chairperson of the Massachusetts Funeral Board.

Snippet

Kim L. Perry said she is a New England manager for Houston-based Service Corporation International, which owns Stanetsky Memorial Chapel in Brookline. Perry has been on the board since 2005. Her five-year term expires next month.

Stanetsky(memorial Chapel  buried one body on Aug. 26 in a grave meant for someone else, then exhumed it the next day and replaced the remains with the right body – all without ever pulling permits at the city’s health department, as required by state law, or notifying authorities, according to Stan Kaplan, executive director of the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts. JCAM owns the Chevra Kadusha Cemetery in Woburn, where the burial mix-up took place. Jewish law prohibits burying a body where another has been, because the ground is then considered desecrated. SCI said it is cooperating with the state.

via news.bostonherald.com

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Chicago-Skokie SCI Cemetery Flag, Memorial Mess-Your Funeral Guy

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Service Corporation International has a created another graveside flap, this time it is not just over grave momentos but flying flags, at a war hero’s grave. A new Manager came to Memorial Park  Cemetery in December 2009 and has told the mother and father to take (at least one of the )flags at the site down.

Skokie, Ill. – The father of a soldier from Skokie has made a deal with a cemetery that will allow him to continue to fly an American flag over his son’s grave.

Last week, Memorial Park in Skokie told Elie Bitton that he had to remove the ten foot flag poles that bookended the monument to his son Albert Bitton, or the cemetery would do it for him.

Army Corporal Bitton was killed by a roadside bomb in 2008, and for the past two and a half years the poles have flown an American flag and an MIA/POW flag on either side of the black granite headstone.

His father visits the grave three times a day, and there has never been a problem until last week when the cemetery’s new manager Ron Graeff told him the flags and the flowers around the grave site would have to go because they didn’t conform to the rules and regulations.

Graeff had only been in charge since December 2009, so he could not say why no one told Bitton the flag poles were too tall when he put them in. The cemetery’s regulations do not permit any memorials taller than four feet.

“After two and a half years, you’re gonna tell me what to do, the flag is down or not. He’s an anti-American, it’s an anti-American, because if it was really an American he would never said that,” an outraged Elie Bitton told Fox Chicago News at the cemetery.

via chicagopressrelease.com

After 2.5  years and telling the family to take the graves down? The world’s largest funeral corporation continued inconsistent enforcement of their  cemetery policies. The Illinois Cemetery Oversight Act will not be much help this matter, although the family has contacted the Department Of Veterans Affairs. Service Corporation International, NYSE:SCI is known by some as big death and the evil funeral empire.

This story was featured on July 28th 2010, on the Fox News Channel Americas News room. Death care Scandals at SCI Have become quite common over the past Several Years.

Funeral industry, Funeral News, Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy

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OUTRAGE-National Funeral Directors Assoc.| Ponzi Scam Man (Earl) to Testify before Congress-YourFuneralGuy

It is being reported that one of the Leaders involved  in the Great Illinois Funeral Association Ponzi Scheme  will testify before Congress on behalf of the National Funeral Directors Association, NFDA. on Cemetery Reform.

According  to AHN(ALL  HEAD LINE NEWS), Randall L Earl, a key player in the IFDA TRUST PONZI SCHEME  will testify before  The House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce, Wednesday.$100 million dollars is gone from the IFDA trust.

The Hearing is on the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act which will extend  the Federal Trade Commissions FUNERAL RULE to cemeteries. This all came about because of the Burr oak Cemetery Scam

The fact that the NFDA Would send Randall Earl, their treasurer has foul political smells and is a total

OUTRAGE!

Earl is implicated in  theft, misappropriation of Funds, by the now defunct IFDA Services in the Illinois Funeral Directors Association PONZI SCHEME.

Earl’s resignation has been called for here. Even ConnectingDirectors com a mouth piece for the Traditional Funeral Industry has questioned Earl’s integrity.

Other Leaders in the Funeral Industry have called for Earl,s resignation.

Specifically Earl has been accused of misappropriating TRUST FUNDS to the Illinois Museum of Funeral Customs.(owned and operated by the IFDA)

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Funeral Industry Site says Funeral Scandal Up in 2009-YourFuneralGuy

Funeral Scandal will continue an grow in 2010

ConnectingDirectors.com agrees with me that 2009  was the year  of the Funeral Scandal. However in the forums the webmaster insisted That Scandal Is caused by a few bad apples who disgrace the Funeral Industry.  This is funeral industry myth about Funeral Scandal. Service Corporation International itself  Leader The Funeral Industry Scandal itself amounts to more than  a few bad apples.

ConnectingDirectors.Com and many industry Old timers insist that the media(press) sensationalize scandal because their business is death. The exact opposite is true the press and the media are not inclined to report Scandal because they rely on the paid obituary from the the Funeral Director for money. In Connecting Directors case and the Newspapers it is also paid advertising  from the  funeral home and the industry that fuels lack of honesty.

This is all covered in Your Funeral Guys  Funeral book “Rest in Peace.”  Naively hoping there will be less funeral scandal in 2010 than 2009 is unrealistic

“SCI, Walmart, and Batesville Lead List of Top 10 Funeral Industry Stories of 2009

2009 wasn’t exactly a picture perfect year for the funeral industry. Marred by scandal after scandal, most press that was given to the industry was negative. Lets hope the 2010 can be a better year.” via ConnectingDirectors.Com

For economic reasons alone, Funeral Scandal will increase in 2010.

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