In one of the more eerie funeral scams of late. A man was convicted in the illegal trafficking, selling and obtaining body parts from Funeral Homes. The individual will be behind bars for 8 years Don’t do the crime If you cant do the time.
Philip Guyett, who pleaded guilty in March to mail fraud for his handling of human tissue he recovered at funeral homes and then sold for use in bone grafts and other procedures…Guyett worked with local funeral homes, and on several occasions falsified records that would have shown some of the donors to be ineligible. In one case, he altered evidence that a donor had liver cancer and sepsis. Another case flagged by FDA inspectors indicate Guyett falsified the cause of death of a patient who showed signs of intravenous drug use — a problem that could have tainted the donor’s tissue with infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.
Now Funeral Fraud has extended to the Funeral Home bookkeeper. A bookkeeper for a funeral home has been charged with racketeering. She was involved with double billing the state for cremation and embalming.
The main charge stealing from the homes of deceased people.
There seems to be wave of this kind of funeral fraud. It is the sign of economic hard times.
Snippet:
A funeral home bookkeeper has been arrested on racketeering and larceny charges….. She is also being accused of double-billing the state for various funeral related costs such as transporting the deceased and the costs for cremating and embalming them…..The investigation is being conducted by the Statewide Prosecution Bureau and Elder Abuse Unit in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney and is expected to continue. Officials said that they expect more arrests
The “Neptune Society” a cremation society where you can prepay your Funeral has been fined 1.2 million for insurance Fraud. The company was mishandling the funeral preneed funds of folks in the State of Colorado.
Colorado fined the Neptune Society For Insurance Violations
It would probably not be wise to do business with the “Neptune” folks. If you have a contract with these people it would be wise not to pay them a visit and ask them where your money is put away for your funeral or cremation.
Colorado’s Division of Insurance has fined Neptune Management Corp., dba The Neptune Society $1.2 million for violating state insurance laws, the DOI reported. According to the DOI, one of the primary charges against Neptune was that the company inflated charges for funeral urns and other “merchandise” products, to reduce the quoted price for pre-need funeral services.
By law, 75 percent of the price for pre-need funeral services, including cremation, must be placed in trust until the services are used.Neptune agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.2 million, for violating provisions of Colorado Insurance Law
Funeral Scandals need to be reported in order to save you money
Funeral scandals need to be reported because it helps the consumer come in under the average cost of a funeral.It also makes the consumer aware of ways they can keep funeral directors honest. Researching funeral scandal is quite a boring task . The bottom line is funeral scandals are good for you if are not a victim.
Service Corporation has had an extraordinary amount of scandals this year. There are excellent SCI Funeral Directors out there. Some are my friends. Reports in the press and other places indicate a corporate cultural problem at SCI. It may be in the core culture of SCI Management.
The problem some believe goes to the outdated business model as reflected in recent numbers. The problems need to continue to be reported and brought to public and funeral directors attention.
It will be a great day when the company corrects the problem or funeral directors through self or State Regulators make the corrections needed.
The Illinois funeral Directors Association Preneed Ponzi scheme (IFDA) and the National Prearranged Services fraud have been blogged about because reporting on preneed scandals makes folks aware of the perils of preneed. It helps people lower their
Dont throw your Money down the grave-Avoid funeral scandal.
funeral costs and come in under the average cost of a funeral.
For these reasons, it is best to make folks aware of reports in the press.
Roland Burris Has Declared his innocence in the ILLINOIS FUNERAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION SCAM
State of Illinois Senator Roland Burris has declared himself innocent in the Illinois Funeral Directors Ponzi Scheme. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. It seems that Senator Roland Burris thinks that a mistep(Fraud?) 30 years ago may not apply to him today.
But the fact of the matter he lobbied for the Preneed Trust Scam in 2oo7. That is not 30 years ago. The fund which lost and misappropriated funeral funds has losses estimated between 59 and 100 million dollars.
*Burris said he had no improper role with a pre-need trust fund formerly overseen by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
“Burris was state comptroller when the IFDA was given authority to oversee the trust fund and later acted as lobbyist for the group.
After the trust fund ran into financial and legal difficulty, current Comptroller Dan Hynes stripped the IFDA of its trust fund role.
“I don’t have any reason to discuss that issue,” Burris said. “I was comptroller 30 years ago.”
Asked if he offered any solutions to problems with the fund when he was lobbying for the group, he said, “No, I was just giving them access to the government people. That’s all I was doing.”
Certainly in the name of honesty Roland Burris has reason to discuss this issue. Citizens of the state want him to talk on this Scandal. Illinois Senator Roland Burris refuses to declare his role or how he was paid by the scam, perpetuated by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
Funeral Industry| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy
Burris Picture from flickr under the creative commons liscence from
Philip Guyett, who pleaded guilty in March to mail fraud for his handling of human tissue he recovered at funeral homes and then sold for use in bone grafts and other procedures…Guyett worked with local funeral homes, and on several occasions falsified records that would have shown some of the donors to be ineligible. In one case, he altered evidence that a donor had liver cancer and sepsis. Another case flagged by FDA inspectors indicate Guyett falsified the cause of death of a patient who showed signs of intravenous drug use — a problem that could have tainted the donor’s tissue with infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis.
Bill on 
on 
