Mark Seepe, who faced earlier problems that cost him his license, has now been indicted for conversion and 6 other counts by two different grand juries. Seepe was arrested last week at his home; the indictments allege Seepe “knowingly and willfully misapplied or converted the pre-need funds to his own personal use.”

These are the first criminal charges he has faced. The issue last year resulted in the loss of his professional license and business operating license, as well as civil litigation, but no other fallout.

In September, 2007, Jeff Palmore, owner of Bell Funeral Home in St Louis, arranged a burial at Pacific City Cemetery. To save the family the $525 fee the cemetery sexton was charging, he offered to dig the grave himself. Sexton Alan Bruns refused, saying there was a city ordinance that only allowed sextons to dig graves. Palmore researched it, and found there indeed was such an ordinance, but noted it also set the fee at $360, not $525.

Palmore has filed suit against Bruns and the city of Pacific for the overcharge in small claims court. The judge there ruled the city had sovereign immunity; Palmore appealed that decision, and added a claim for punitive damages, alleging overcharging for burials, selling people grave spaces they already own and digging up and disposing of dead bodies, all with the tacit approval of the city.

It’s been a contentious time since then, with an argument during a funeral where the police were called. The city administrator is siding with Bruns, a fourth-generation sexton. No court date has been set for the new case.

The Florida Division of Funeral, Cemetery & Consumer Services is investigating Rubin Memorial Chapel near Boynton Beach, Florida, for the third time in as many years. After audits in 2006 and 2007, both triggered by employee complaints, the state found that Rubin Memorial Chapel had overcharged customers at least 9 times, and was slow to refund the money when ordered.

The funeral home is also the defendant in a class-action lawsuit. Two former employees allege they were told to scan invoices from out-of-state funeral homes, and alter them to cover overcharges, which Rubin would then pocket.

Rubin’s attorney denies the lawsuit allegations.

The owner of Seepe Funeral Home & Crematory, in Jackson, MS, is under investigation for desecration of a corpse. At least two former employees have come forward with evidence that Mark Seepe had given cremains to one family before their family member was cremated, as well as photos of bones from multiple cremations mixed together.

About a year ago, the Central Ohio funeral industry was shaken by a pair of fraud and theft investigations that closed one funeral home, and sent two funeral directors to prison.

Now it’s spread to Canada, apparently.

I supposed that’s not correct. It’s not a disease that can be spread. It’s just…what? Bad morals? Poor upbringing? That’s not a fair thing to say, as we don’t know anything about the parenting involved.

And the issue of theft and fraud in the funeral industry isn’t uncommon, unfortunately. An Alabama funeral director was recently arrested as well.

What can be done to prevent such crimes? Probably not much, sadly. The funds involved are typically held in trust by the funeral home, and the customers are relying on the integrity of the funeral home and its staff. Short of eliminating the trust option from pre-paid funeral contracts, I’m not certain anything can be done.