LOS ANGELES - Two women accused of staging funerals for fictitious people in an insurance fraud scheme pleaded not guilty to wire and mail fraud charges on Monday.
Faye Shilling of Hawthorne, and Jean Crump were arrested on Wednesday.
Investigators claim the two allegedly planned to collect almost $1 million from insurance and lending companies by buying policies for people who did not exist. The women would then hold funeral services for them.
After the funerals, the women allegedly filed phony documents with the county claiming the remains had been cremated and scattered at sea.
The insurance policies were worth between $50,000 and $450,000. Prosecutors claim the two collected on some policies as large as $250,000.
Crump is also accused of offering a doctor $50,000 to create records for a phony death certificate.
Shilling and Crump are free on $10,000 bail. If convicted, they face up to 100 years in federal prison.
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