  Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 953 Registered: 06-2004 Posted From: 64.12.116.204 |
I suspect a number of us are affected by this - I know my parents had pre-paid some of their funeral expenses at one of the cemeteries listed. DETROIT -- Attorneys general in Michigan and Tennessee have opened criminal investigations into allegations that the owner of Michigan's largest cemetery company illegally removed millions of dollars from trust fund accounts and put the money into ventures in Oklahoma and Nevada. A spokesman for Attorney General Mike Cox confirmed the criminal investigation that began last month and includes a review of finances by the state's Bureau of Commercial Services, which enforces cemetery regulations. "We have ordered a full-scale audit of (the 28) trust accounts to make sure the public's interest is protected," said Andrew L. Metcalf Jr., director of the Bureau of Commercial Services. Michigan regulators fear that $61 million in trust funds earmarked for future burials and maintenance at 28 cemeteries is at risk. If the funds are depleted, thousands of consumers who bought contracts for future burials at large cemeteries such as Woodlawn in Detroit and Cadillac Memorial Gardens East in Clinton Township would also be out the money paid years earlier. full story Cemetery mystery: $61M gone? Trusts reviewed: The 28 cemeteries owned by Clayton L. Smart and operated under the corporate name of Mikocem LLC: Acacia Park Cemetery, Beverly Hills Mount Hope Memorial Gardens, Livonia Oakview Cemetery, Royal Oak United Memorial Gardens, Plymouth Oakland Hills Memorial, Novi Roseland Park Cemetery, Berkley Cadillac Memorial Gardens East, Mt. Clemens Cadillac Memorial Gardens West, Westland Woodmere Cemetery, Detroit Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Detroit Grand Lawn Cemetery & Mausoleum, Detroit Washtenong Memorial Park and Mausoleum, Ann Arbor East Lawn Memorial Gardens, Saginaw Graceland Memorial Park, Grand Rapids Hillcrest Memorial Park, Jackson Albion Memorial Gardens, Albion Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens, Dimondale Floral View Memorial Gardens, Grandville Garden of Rest, Wells Kent Memorial Gardens, Grand Rapids Midland Memorial Gardens, Midland Northland Chapel Gardens, Negaunee Oaklawn Chapel Gardens, Sault St. Marie Oakwood Mausoleum, Saginaw Rest Lawn Memorial Gardens, Holland Roselawn Memorial Gardens, Saginaw Elm Lawn Cemetery, Bay City | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 234 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.242.218.76 |
The article contains at least one error. Mayor Coleman Young is buried in Elmwood Cemetery which is not at all owned by this corporation. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2525 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.167.210.27 |
Another argument for cremation. | ||
Itsjeff Member Username: Itsjeff Post Number: 5828 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
Really, Lowell, it was just a small error in reporting. No need to go overboard. | ||
Fnemecek Member Username: Fnemecek Post Number: 1597 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 69.217.229.55 |
LOL @ Itsjeff! | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 2078 Registered: 09-2005 Posted From: 68.230.22.99 |
This is a dead issue. | ||
Itsjeff Member Username: Itsjeff Post Number: 5829 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
Karl, if you thought that was funny, you're gravely mistaken. | ||
Outoftowner Member Username: Outoftowner Post Number: 127 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.223.214.2 |
^^^ I'm laughing so hard I've started coffin. | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1104 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.61.183.223 |
I think this corporation wants this story burried.. | ||
Outoftowner Member Username: Outoftowner Post Number: 128 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.223.214.2 |
They're going to have to re-hearse their alibi. | ||
Itsjeff Member Username: Itsjeff Post Number: 5830 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
I rigor-ously encourage everyone to stop posting bad puns. | ||
Jimelnino Member Username: Jimelnino Post Number: 399 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.214.180.214 |
^ Hey, you reap what you sow ...yeah that one is a bit of a stretch | ||
Itsjeff Member Username: Itsjeff Post Number: 5831 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
I know my parents had pre-paid some of their funeral expenses at one of the cemeteries listed. Maybe they should have called Di-tech! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAahahah ahahahahahahahaha. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 954 Registered: 06-2004 Posted From: 69.129.146.186 |
naw, my dad doesn't finance anything - he's a real diehard (btw I was really pissed when I first read about this, til you started riffing - thanks) | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 494 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139 |
 | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1106 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.61.183.223 |
ha... that was a real dig... | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 2082 Registered: 09-2005 Posted From: 72.25.177.194 |
All of you: LOLIAZ!! Now I have to ask: Is The House of Diggs still open for business in the D? | ||
Manrooter Member Username: Manrooter Post Number: 401 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
House of Diggs??? I wouldn't be caught dead there. | ||
Kova Member Username: Kova Post Number: 227 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 141.213.184.173 |
can we bury this thread now? | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 2649 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.202.227.12 |
The topic of this thread is morti-fying... | ||
Thnk2mch Member Username: Thnk2mch Post Number: 138 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 67.38.87.62 |
Wow... Now Lowell is gonna have to undertake filtering subjects. | ||
Itsjeff Member Username: Itsjeff Post Number: 5834 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
I can dig it. | ||
Neilr Member Username: Neilr Post Number: 235 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 69.242.218.76 |
A number of years ago, while walking down the main entrance drive of Woodlawn Cemetery, I noticed a discrete "For Sale" sign in front of one of the private family mausoleums. I've always wondered what the circumstances were that led to that family's decision to downsize. I mean, it's one thing to sell the diamond jewelry grandma left you in order to pay for a condo in Florida; but it's another thing entirely to sell the roof over her head... | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3706 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107 |
This thread was dead in the water from the beginning. Oh well, this is a preservation Forum. Like down to Receiving Hospital; GSW, DOA! jjaba. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 2527 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.167.210.27 |
Two from the ancient Oakwood Cemetery in Farmington... One for Karl and all the right wingers to celebrate the death of...  ...and one for Manrooter to weep over the loss of...  | ||
Manrooter Member Username: Manrooter Post Number: 402 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 208.27.111.125 |
I'm more curious about Jay Welfare, who is now 132 years old. | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 2084 Registered: 09-2005 Posted From: 72.25.177.194 |
Well then, perhaps Manrooter can be the judge: Have we hit bottom yet? | ||
Susanarosa Member Username: Susanarosa Post Number: 794 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 208.39.170.90 |
Only if he can prove he's got six feet behind him... | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 2085 Registered: 09-2005 Posted From: 72.25.177.194 |
A nice automotive tie-in, appropriate for the ocassion: http://www.imperialclub.com/Ra re/Hearses/History.htm | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 2086 Registered: 09-2005 Posted From: 72.25.177.194 |
And of course, we can't leave out the story of the originator of House of Diggs: Charles Diggs Dies at 75 By Richard Pearson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 26, 1998; Page B06 Charles C. Diggs Jr., 75, a Michigan Democrat who served 25 years in Congress, where he helped found the Congressional Black Caucus and rose to become chairman of the House District Committee, died Aug. 24 at Greater Southeast Community Hospital after a stroke. Mr. Diggs was elected to the House in 1954. He was the first chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, serving from 1969 to 1971, and from 1973 to 1978, he was chairman of the House District Committee. He also was chairman of the African affairs subcommittee of what was then the House Foreign Affairs Committee. During his years as committee chairman, he spearheaded the efforts that resulted in the District's receiving a Home Rule Charter. He also was instrumental in the creation of the University of the District of Columbia and in the movement to declare the Frederick Douglass home in Anacostia a national monument. He resigned from Congress in 1980, two years after being convicted of 29 counts of operating a payroll kickback scheme in his office. In 1978, he was stripped of his committee and subcommittee chairmanships. He also was censured by the House. During the trial and appeals, Mr. Diggs maintained that he was a victim of "selective prosecution" and that he was held to standards different from white colleagues. After serving seven months of a three-year prison sentence, he returned to the Washington area. He settled in Hillcrest Heights, received a political science degree from Howard University and opened a funeral home business in Prince George's County. Charles Coles Diggs Jr. was born in Detroit. His father was the wealthy, politically powerful owner and operator of the House of Diggs, once called Michigan's largest funeral home. The younger Diggs attended the University of Michigan and Fisk University before serving with the Army Air Forces in World War II. After the war, he received a degree in mortuary science from Wayne State University and attended the Detroit College of Law. Mr. Diggs, a licensed mortician, entered the family business in 1946, then served from 1951 to 1954 in the Michigan State Senate. He was elected to Congress in 1954 from Michigan's 13th District. He defeated seven-term incumbent George D. O'Brien in the Democratic primary and went on to win a landslide victory in the general election. His district included downtown Detroit and some of the city's poorest neighborhoods. The district was one of the most Democratic in the country, and Mr. Diggs never had trouble winning reelection, even after his 1978 convictions. Upon arriving in Congress, he was assigned to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and the Veterans Affairs Committee. He immediately became active in civil rights activities and became a leading black spokesman. He called for speedy desegregation of public schools as well as desegregation of public transportation. In Michigan politics, he became a power in negotiations on redistricting after the 1960 U.S. Census. After that reapportionment, Michigan became the first state since Reconstruction to send two black representatives to the House. On the Foreign Affairs Committee, he became an authority on Africa and a proponent of aid to emerging nations there. He became chairman of the District Committee in 1973 after the defeat of Rep. John L. McMillan (D-S.C.). | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 957 Registered: 06-2004 Posted From: 69.129.146.186 |
uh, yeah we can...killjoy | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 496 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139 |
He who breaks the thread.....  | ||
Jimelnino Member Username: Jimelnino Post Number: 400 Registered: 06-2005 Posted From: 24.192.134.204 |
Please don't use bold to emphasize the shots at the Democrats, this is not the thread for that. | ||
Jiminnm Member Username: Jiminnm Post Number: 468 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.35.85.184 |
Many people strive to be:  But end up being:  | ||
Jiminnm Member Username: Jiminnm Post Number: 469 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.35.85.184 |
Sometimes there is foul play afoot:   Then the investigators are sent in:  | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3708 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.160.138.107 |
Thanks. Funny. LOL. jjaba. | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1108 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.61.183.223 |
how did those WORM their way in there... | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 497 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139 |
With apologies to the ladies......  | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 498 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139 |
One for all you attorneys.......  | ||
Kahnman Member Username: Kahnman Post Number: 18 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.113.112.114 |
Will you all kindly refrain from resuscitating this thread? | ||
Jiminnm Member Username: Jiminnm Post Number: 476 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 68.35.85.184 |
 This thread can't die. | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1116 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.61.183.223 |
i guess they couldnt make money legally, their accounts were bone dry |
