California funeral homes overcharged $500K, violating consumer protection laws, DA says

Two Woodland-based funeral homes — both owned by a couple — overcharged thousands of families seeking burial services and fraudulently received about $500,000 across four years, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Each business, which has served families for generations, are two of six similar entities across Yolo County. Under California law, funeral homes must maintain an accurate “general price list and casket price list,” an itemized record of all funeral costs and services, to provide to families, according to the complaint.

But the owners of Kraft Bros Directors and McNary’s Chapel at times did not provide its itemized costs on this list and inflated its prices from January 2020 until June 2024, according to the complaint. Owners Paul Wiggins and Lailene Villaret Wiggins are also accused of including false information on death certificates and violating disclosure and transparency requirements.

“Every person who makes final arrangements for a loved one deserves to be treated with dignity, and to do business with an ethical and law-abiding provider,” the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, which filed the complaint in court on Friday, said in a news release. “There is no excuse for taking advantage of grieving families, and we are committed to seeking justice for consumers who were mistreated.”

Messages left at Kraft Bros Funeral Directors and McNary’s Chapel were not immediately returned Wednesday.

The owners are accused of overcharging in categories such as crematory fees, refrigeration fees, sales tax and several others. Every customer’s file, except three, contained a law violation, according to the complaint.

The city of Woodland has an 8% sales tax. However, the owners charged an 8.25% sales tax hundreds of times, according to the complaint.

“By adding a quarter of a percent charge to the cost of goods, (the owners) were able to extract a few extra dollars from grieving families,” the complaint said.

In another instance, the owners are accused of billing a family for a funeral that did not happen and inflating costs for transportation and cremation listed on the general price list, the complaint said.

Owner Lailene Villaret Wiggins, a licensed life insurance agent, is also accused of “failing to honor the terms of the preneed contracts,” which are cost agreements for a funeral decided before a burial takes place.

The alleged behavior of the funeral home owners left a lasting impression on some families.

When Darrel Toms died in August 2021, his widow and daughter called Kraft Bros Funeral Directors to coordinate his burial during the weekend. But Lailene Wiggins demanded Tom’s wife, Janice Toms, pay an extra $690 to hold a Saturday funeral, the complaint said.

The general price list showed a charge of $635 for “services held on Saturday, Sunday or Legal Holiday,” the complaint said, while noting Janice Toms did not have this record. She ultimately did not pay the additional charge.

On the day of Darrel Toms funeral, “two employees demanded payment of the inflated Saturday fee and threatened to refuse to lower Mr. Toms’s casket into the grave unless they paid,” the complaint said.

“The threat to leave Mr. Toms’s casket hovering over his open grave, suspended on a crane, caused significant emotional suffering for a widow and children laying their late husband and father to rest,” the complaint said.

“Ms. Toms recalls the threat being one of the worst experiences of her life.”