San Jose Mercury News
Monday, April 18, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California’s attorney general sued one of the nation’s largest funeral trust funds Monday, claiming its managers had illegally diverted $14 million that consumers had saved to pay for cemetery plots, caskets and services.
The lawsuit says administrators of the California Master Trust paid themselves excessive fees and gave at least $4.6 million in illegal kickbacks to the 300 funeral homes that participate in the trust.
The 26-year-old trust holds about $63.5 million paid in advance by 27,000 consumers for funeral services.
“The defendants preyed upon thousands of Californians at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives,” Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement. “This lawsuit will make sure their money goes where it was intended: to pay for their funerals or the funerals of loved ones.”
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