{Charleston, West Virginia}...Attorney General Darrell McGraw filed an embezzlement lawsuit Monday against Elk Funeral Home in Charleston and its owner Billy Surratt, claiming Surratt misappropriated funds belonging to at least sixteen people who paid in advance for funeral arrangements. The Attorney General's Office says at least $61,990 is missing. State law requires funeral providers to deposit all payments for preneed funeral contracts in special accounts for safekeeping until the time of need and that it be reported to the Attorney General's Office. An investigation was launched in February 2012 after someone called the Consumer Protection Hotline with concerns over her mother's preneed contract, and investigators found the transaction was never reported to the Attorney General's Office nor deposited in a special trust account. The lawsuit seeks to ban Suratt and Elk Funeral Home from accepting prepayments for funerals. It also wants to seize more than $189,900 in preneed contract funds currently under Surratt's control and asks for restitution for customers who were harmed by this conduct, as well as civil penalties, punitive damages and interest on all judgments.
