State Police Charge Woonsocket Funeral Director With Embezzling $27,526 From His Clients

Todd W. Lauzon, 38, of 1 Neives Court, Westerly, RI,  owner of the T. Lauzon Funeral Home, LLC, on Spring Street in Woonsocket, was arrested yesterday for Unlawful Appropriation Over $1,000, Embezzlement Over $100 and Forgery. This is Lauzon's second police incident this year. Last fall, Lauzon's license was suspended on allegations of improperly burying a cremated body.

The arrest by the State Police Financial Crimes Unit was the result of a complaint received in November 2010 from the Rhode Island Department of Health.

State Police reports indicate that an investigation revealed Lauzon had converted $27,564 in client funds to his own use.  The funds, police say, were placed with Cooperative Funeral Funds, an escrow agent, in early 2001 when Lauzon sold "pre-need" contracts to the three (3) victims.  A "pre-need" contract is funeral service purchased and paid for in advance of the client’s death.  Rhode Island General Law requires funeral directors deposit the funds received for pre-need contracts in a third party escrow account.  

In November 2010, Lauzon allegedly withdrew the funds from Cooperative Funeral Funds by fabricating withdrawal request letters and forging the clients’ names on the letters.  The letters directed the escrow agent to send the funds directly to the T. Lauzon Funeral Home.  Police say Lauzon received the checks, forged the clients’ name on the checks and deposited the money into the T. Lauzon Funeral Home business account.  

Police reviewed T. Lauzon Funeral Home bank records and reportedly found that Lauzon was paying numerous personal expenses from the account.  The investigation also identified additional victims who provided funds to Lauzon for pre-need contracts that were not transferred to an escrow agent.  Lauzon provided a statement admitting that he fabricated the letters and forged the clients’ name to obtain the pre-need funds; that certain pre-need funds were not transferred to a third party escrow agent; and that he used the proceeds from the pre-need contracts to pay personal and business expenses.

The charges against Lauzon from earlier this year stemmed from an incident in which Lauzon was accused of improperly burying a cremated body in Precious Blood Cemetery without a permit. The director admitted to wrongdoing in a letter to the Board of Funeral Directors, including a cremation order for the body. At the time, the niece of the deceased said her uncle did not want to be cremated and the signature on the paperwork was not hers.

Woonsocket residents may remember this is not the first incident involving embezzlement at a city funeral home. In 2002, Paul Menoche, former owner of Menoche Funeral Home on Providence Street was convicted of embezzling more than $400,000 of his customer's prepaid burial contracts. 

Lauzon was arraigned in the Sixth Division District Court, Providence, RI, on embezzlement charges and released on $15,000 bail with surety.