Cemetery money ‘diverted,’ court told … click here for story

Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 12, 2009

A second extension of time was granted this morning to the Secretary of State’s Office in its quest to locate money it says is missing from a trust account maintained by Green Acres Memorial Park for pre-need funeral services.

To contact the Secretary of State’s office about a claim, click here

The extension came after Dave Scott, assistant secretary of state for Business Regulation and Enforcement, testified that the office’s investigation shows that money from the commercial cemetery’s operating account, held at a Vicksburg branch of BancorpSouth, has been diverted to the parent company’s holdings in Alabama and South Carolina.

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Neither officials of the cemetery’s holding company, Mike Graham and Associates, nor its Mississippi registered agent, Flowood-based CT Corporation, were in court this morning.

Scott also testified the company’s Houston offices have been dissolved much like the cemetery’s trailer office on U.S. 80, with those records believed to be held in a storage facility.

Ninth District Chancellor Vicki Roach Barnes, who earlier granted a request to freeze the cemetery company’s assets and then an extension, did not set another hearing date.

Read more in Friday’s Vicksburg Post

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com