Rooney Enterprises, Inc., operated a cemetery in Franklin County, Virginia. A state law requires companies that receive advance payments for funeral expenses and burial plots to put those funds into a special trust account. Instead of doing so, Rooney used such funds for operating expenses. It later became insolvent, so all those customers who had prepaid their burial plots and expenses lost both their money and their plots. The Virginia Attorney General brought criminal charges against Patrick Rooney, as president, for his failure to follow the requirements for trust fund deposits. Mr. Rooney said he was unaware of the requirement, that the requirement was not in effect when his company purchased the cemetery, and that only the company could be prosecuted for the failure to follow trust-fund requirements. Decide whether Mr. Rooney should be convicted.

Question

Aaliyah Sanders

Business

5 September, 12:04

Rooney Enterprises, Inc., operated a cemetery in Franklin County, Virginia. A state law requires companies that receive advance payments for funeral expenses and burial plots to put those funds into a special trust account. Instead of doing so, Rooney used such funds for operating expenses. It later became insolvent, so all those customers who had prepaid their burial plots and expenses lost both their money and their plots. The Virginia Attorney General brought criminal charges against Patrick Rooney, as president, for his failure to follow the requirements for trust fund deposits. Mr. Rooney said he was unaware of the requirement, that the requirement was not in effect when his company purchased the cemetery, and that only the company could be prosecuted for the failure to follow trust-fund requirements. Decide whether Mr. Rooney should be convicted.

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Answers (2)

Know the Answer?

Sarahi Lucas · Answer 1

Rooney is not personally and criminally responsible for the failure of the organization to make compulsory trust deposits, also the evidence is not enough to ascertain any conviction for embezzlement, therefore the convictions should be reversed and the indictments should be dismissed.

Callie Ramsey · Answer 2

Rooney should not be personally convicted for the outcome

Explanation:

Aware of the fact that Rooney did not reach such decision on a personal level but a collective decision, and if the policy was not evoked as at the time of the company's startup, then the companies is riot criminally liable.

Again, ignorance of the law is not an excuse. The claim of Rooney as an individual can be valid for him as a person but not as a policy that guides the management and operation of all companies.