In mid-January 2014, we received an allegation that one of our former T.J. McGowan Sons Funeral Home employees had been requesting and receiving personal payments directly from customers for services conducted by the business. Immediately upon learning of this matter, we launched a comprehensive internal investigation to uncover the facts and, after completing our investigation, we proactively engaged the New York State Police and the Department of Health Bureau of Funeral Directing to turn over all evidence and facts that were uncovered. Given the nature of the potential charges, the complaint and investigation were kept private until now.
On September 3, 2014, the New York State Police arrested Donald Cranston, former manager of T.J. McGowan, on charges of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree (https://www.nyspnews.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=40428).
It is important to note that we believe all services were provided to customers as promised in the agreements made with T.J. McGowan Sons. This was a fraud perpetuated against the Company. Additionally, no PreNeed accounts were impacted in any way by this fraud. We have and will continue to fully cooperate with the authorities.
For more than 135 years, T.J. McGowan Sons has been creating healing experiences, caring for families, and creating meaningful ceremonies to honor the lives and memories of our loved ones. We value highly the trust of our customers, and expect all of our employees to meet and exceed the highest ethical standards. As a result of our investigation, we have added further rigor to our internal oversight procedures to help avoid similar circumstances in the future.