October 28, 2008
 

    LANSING - Attorney General Mike Cox today announced that his office has charged Robert Earl Nelms, 40, of Indiana, with 22 felony counts for allegedly embezzling more than $4 million in cemetery trust funds from Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Grand Rapids.  The charges include racketeering, failure to trust cemetery proceeds, and uttering and publishing.
 

    "The defendant's actions are despicable - this is yet another case of a greedy man robbing from the dead," said Cox.  "Those who are laid to rest deserve to have their memory and their sacred ground protected."

    The charges against Nelms are related to an earlier investigation.  In 2007, Cox charged Clayton Smart with 39 felony counts in connection with the alleged embezzlement of more than $70 million in cemetery trust funds affecting 28 Michigan cemeteries.  In that case, Smart acquired ownership of the cemeteries from Craig Bush in August 2004.  In violation of state law, Smart wired at least $21 million in trust money to Bush after the transfer of ownership. 

    The current investigation revealed that in December 2004, using the money from Clayton Smart, Craig Bush loaned Nelms $13.5 million for the cash down payment to purchase cemeteries and funeral homes.  Nelms then paid Bush back using trust funds, including interest on those funds at an annual percentage rate of 111% ($246,664.00).

    Charges filed against Nelms, include:

• One count of racketeering, a 20-year felony;

• Five counts of embezzlement, each a 10-year felony;

• Four counts of uttering and publishing, each a 14-year felony; and,

• Twelve counts of failure to trust cemetery proceeds, each a five-year felony.

    The 22 counts have been filed at the 63-2 District Court in Grand Rapids.  If convicted as charged, Nelms could serve 20 years in prison.

    Nelms is the owner of funeral homes in New York, New Jersey and Indiana.  He has been charged in Indiana with theft and other charges associated with cemetery and funeral home trust funds.  Clayton Smart is awaiting trial in Tennessee on related charges.  Upon completion of that trial, Smart will be transferred to Michigan for arraignment on Cox's charges.

    A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. 

-30-