Headstone salesman indicted on fraud charges, accused of taking customers' money and not completing work
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - An Upper Merion, Pennsylvania man has been indicted on charges he defrauded hundreds of customers through his multiple businesses selling cemetery headstones.
Gregory J. Stefan, Jr., 54, was indicted by a grand jury on seven counts of wire fraud, court documents show.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia said Stefan was the owner and operator of two headstone businesses, "1843 LLC" and "Colonial Memorials."
The indictment alleges that Stefan defrauded grieving customers out of large sums of money for custom headstone services that he never intended to deliver on.
Stefan would ask customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for up-front payments that were then processed on a server in Texas — but allegedly routinely failed to complete orders by the expected delivery date. When customers would inquire about orders, Stefan would either ignore requests or pacify customers with false claims that orders were en route.
The indictment states that Stefan failed to deliver a headstone or provide refunds for a total of almost 500 customers, or about 25% of his orders received between January 2018 and March 2023.
These customers paid Stefan more than $1.5 million, federal prosecutors say.
An FBI agent arrested Stefan in Hackensack, New Jersey on Tuesday, according to a warrant filed in court.
If Stefan is convicted, he faces a maximum possible sentence of 140 years in prison.
A form on the FBI's website is still seeking information from anyone else who may have been a victim of headstone fraud from Stefan's businesses.
The investigation is still ongoing.
A message to an attorney listed for Stefan in court documents was not immediately returned on Wednesday.
The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by assistant United States attorney Jessica Rice.