Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Cemetery firm points finger at ex-owners

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Cemetery firm points finger at ex-owners

Written by DeadGirl
Monday, 03 March 2008
Company accused of raiding trusts says it wasn't 1st to tap funds By Jon Murray An Indiana cemetery company accused of pilfering its trusts alleges in a new court filing that the previous owners also routinely raided the accounts. Memory Gardens Management Corp. filed the allegations in response to state officials' accusations that the New Jersey man who bought the company in 2004 drained as much as $27 million from its trust accounts. That money was collected from customers and set aside in funds for perpetual care of cemetery grounds and for prepaid burial services. Financial, legal and accounting advisers told Robert Nelms that transferring the money would not violate Indiana law, according to new claims filed in Johnson Circuit Court. After his December 2004 purchase of the company closed, Nelms first moved a trust to a Noblesville bank. He used some of the money to pay off a loan used for the $13.5 million down payment. "My client is adamant that the transaction was legal," said attorney Mark Waterfill, who represents Memory Gardens' parent, Ansure Mortuaries of Indiana. "But if it is not, my client relied upon the world's largest bank, a brokerage firm and several law firms who all participated in and designed this transaction." Investigators have portrayed Nelms as a more active participant. But the company's filing says his advisers should be held responsible for fraud, negligence and other wrongdoing if the transactions involving the trusts are found to be illegal. The court filing says the family of Fred Meyer Jr., Memory Gardens' owners for 30 years, also withdrew money from the trusts and failed to deposit full payments from customer contracts. The filing says attorneys recently determined the prepaid burial fund was about $5.8 million short at the time of the sale. The Meyers dispute that and another claim saying they knew trust money would be used in the purchase. "There was absolutely not anything that would have indicated to the Meyers or to their (advisers) that any trust money was going to be coming to them," said Wayne Turner, their attorney. Since Nelms' arrest in January, allegations and counterclaims have emerged in three courts: Nelms, 39, and Debora Johnson, 48, face nine felony charges each in Marion Superior Court, including theft and violations of a cemetery perpetual-care fund. Johnson's attorney has said she recently learned the couple's marriage was never legal. The Meyer family sued in the Johnson County court, seeking $8 million from the sale still owed by Nelms through promissory notes. The Indiana securities commissioner and attorney general intervened to obtain orders freezing assets owned by Nelms and Memory Gardens and appointing a receiver to run the company. A class-action lawsuit by customer William Fishback, who has a prepaid contract at Greenwood's Forest Lawn Memory Gardens, is pending in U.S. District Court. It names Memory Gardens; Nexus Fiduciary Trust Corp., formerly Community Trust & Investment of Noblesville; and Smith Barney, a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets. The court-appointed receiver, Franklin attorney Lynette Gray, said some misspent trust money has been located. The company is stable and is honoring customers' contracts, she said. Marion County prosecutors have said more criminal charges are possible. "This case is widespread, it's complex, and it crosses state lines," said David Wyser, the prosecutor's chief trial deputy. Several states are investigating Nelms, he said. Some men named in Nelms' probable cause affidavit face charges in Michigan and Tennessee in similar cases. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/LOCAL/803040352

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries

Taphophilia Facts

Taking a body to the crematorium, some Hindus toss coins on the way, symbolizing that the deceased must leave everything behind.

Taphophiles Speak

Have you decided on eternal repose?

	earthen burial
	entombment
	cremation
	donation to science
	cyrogenically frozen
	you mean I'm still alive?

Quote Repository

“The good he scorn'd Stalk'd off reluctant, like an ill-us'd ghost, Not to return; or if it did, its visits Like Those of angels, short, and far between.”

Robert Blair (1699-1746) from