Nixon launches funeral plan probe

Funeral service business suspected of taking customers' money, but not delivering services.

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon on Thursday filed a preliminary injunction in Scott County Circuit Court against Mike Graham and Associates for allegedly taking money for dozens of grave markers that were never delivered and selling space in a mausoleum in Rolla that has not yet been constructed.

The company does business as Memorial Park cemetery and Garden of Memories in Sikeston, Forest Hill Memorial Gardens in Morley and Ozark Memorial Cemetery in Rolla. Nixon's press secretary Jim Gardner said the company took approximately $260,000 from more than 100 customers who never received the services they paid for.

The action was part of Operation Grave Concerns, a statewide effort to combat funeral service operations Gardner called "unscrupulous."

The person who answered calls to Graham and Associates said the company does not want to comment.

Under the injunction, Graham and Associates agreed to stop selling headstones, plots, vaults and other goods and services where prepayment is required.

Nixon said these practices were brought to his attention by people calling the state consumer protection hot line at (800) 392-8222.

Nixon said consumers have been hurt by paying for things like headstones and not getting them, and by going through the hassle of trying to find something to mark a grave of a loved one and then not having it delivered.

Investigators began looking at practices in Scott County three months ago.

"As we saw a number of these cases coming to us, we decided to package them up and push them out today to send a clear signal across the state, first of all that this is a serious and ongoing challenge and that on completing this we expect other actions to come forward," Nixon said.

The state is seeking restitution if the services cannot be provided.

Nixon said consumers can take certain steps to protect themselves when purchasing funeral services:

* Don't make a cash payment because they are very difficult to track.

* Call the trust company where the trust is held to check on the account and make inquiries as to the value of the account.

* Keep a record of all payments.

More then 500 people across Missouri paid more than $800,000 for services that weren't received in the state's $1.6 billion funeral industry, Nixon said.

In Missouri, funeral service providers are required to put 80 percent of the money they receive for future services into trust accounts to benefit the person who bought the contract. The other 20 percent they are free to use.

Kansas has filed claims against Mike Graham and Associates in connection with their management of the Lawrence Memorial Park cemetery and Topeka's West Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery, said Jan Lunsford, press secretary for Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.