Brent Cassity

Brent Douglas Cassity
Born:	circa 1967 St. Louis, Missouri
Charges:	Mail fraud, Wire fraud, Money laundering, Permitting a felon to engage in the insurance business
Sentence:	5 years (60 months) federal prison
Facility:	USP Leavenworth
Status:	Released

Brent Douglas Cassity is an American former funeral-industry executive convicted in the National Prearranged Services fraud. He pleaded guilty in 2013 to mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and willfully permitting a convicted felon to engage in the business of insurance. A federal court in St. Louis sentenced him to five years in prison.

National Prearranged Services, based in the St. Louis area, sold prepaid funeral contracts. Customers paid in advance so their families would not face funeral costs later. State law required the money to sit in trust accounts or backed insurance policies. Prosecutors said NPS did not hold the funds that way. The company spent customer money on company officers, operating costs, and payouts to earlier customers. Federal filings described it as a Ponzi-like scheme that ran for more than fifteen years before collapsing in 2008.

More than 97,000 victims lost money. The group included individual customers, funeral homes, insurers, and financial institutions across at least sixteen states. Total losses ran past $450 million. Brent Cassity served his term at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. After his release he wrote a memoir and started a podcast, both titled Nightmare Success.

Background

Brent Cassity grew up in a St. Louis family that ran a funeral and cemetery business. His father, James "Doug" Cassity, bought National Prearranged Services Inc. in 1979. The company sat at the center of a cluster of related funeral, cemetery, and insurance entities. Brent Cassity became an officer of NPS and worked alongside his father and brother in the family enterprise.

He has said he first visited his father in a federal prison as a teenager. Doug Cassity had an earlier securities-fraud conviction. Decades later Brent Cassity entered the same federal system as a defendant.

Brent Cassity helped run the family's funeral operation as it expanded. By his own account the business grew from a handful of states to more than twenty. One affiliated insurer, Lincoln Memorial Life Insurance Company, issued policies tied to the prepaid funeral contracts. The DOJ later named both NPS and Lincoln Memorial in the criminal case.

How prepaid funeral contracts work

A prepaid funeral contract lets a customer plan and pay for a funeral before death. The buyer locks in services and prices. The seller is supposed to set the money aside until the funeral happens.

State laws set rules for that money. A company can hold it in a regulated trust account. A company can also buy a life insurance policy that pays out when the customer dies. Either way the funds must stay available for the funeral. Many buyers are older. Regulators built the rules around that fact. Prosecutors said NPS told customers, funeral homes, and state regulators that it followed these rules. It did not.

National Prearranged Services Fraud

Federal prosecutors said the fraud ran from the early 1990s until NPS collapsed in 2008. Money that should have stayed in trusts or insurance reserves went elsewhere. Court records described several uses for the diverted funds:

• Personal enrichment of company officers and the Cassity family
• Operating costs and sales commissions that legitimate revenue should have covered
• Payments to earlier customers whose contracts came due, the core mechanic of a Ponzi scheme
• Investments and spending unrelated to the funeral obligations

The scheme required steady deception of several groups. Customers were told their prepaid funds sat in trust. Funeral homes that signed with NPS believed the company would honor its contracts. State insurance regulators received financial statements that hid the shortfall. Lincoln Memorial and other affiliated insurers did not provide the protection customers thought they had paid for.

A judge later called it "an enormous Ponzi scheme." One civil suit over the collapse described losses of roughly $500 million.

Collapse and investigation

NPS ran out of new money to cover old obligations. The structure failed in 2008. State insurance regulators and federal authorities opened investigations. Investigators put the victim count above 97,000 and the losses past $450 million. The conduct had continued for more than fifteen years.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies built the criminal case. Prosecutors charged six people connected to NPS and its affiliated companies.

Charges and Sentencing

Guilty pleas

In 2013, Brent Cassity pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and willfully permitting a felon to engage in the business of insurance. The last count concerned people with prior felony convictions who took part in the insurance operation. His father, Doug Cassity, then 67, pleaded guilty hours earlier to a similar set of charges and admitted that he organized and led the enterprise.

The pleas were part of a larger case. Six defendants pleaded guilty to roles in the scheme.

Sentences

The court sentenced the six defendants in November 2013. Brent Cassity received 60 months, or five years, in federal prison. The court tied his restitution to a joint judgment of about $435 million against the NPS defendants. Doug Cassity received nine years and seven months, the term that reflected his role as the leader.

The other defendants received the following terms:

• David Wulf, an investment adviser: ten years
• Randall K. Sutton, the chief financial officer: seven years
• Howard Wittner, the company lawyer: three years
• Sharon Nekol Province, an employee: eighteen months

Incarceration and After

Brent Cassity served his sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. The Leavenworth complex is one of the oldest federal prison sites in the country. He has said he reported to Leavenworth to begin the five-year term.

After his release he wrote a memoir, Nightmare Success: Loyalty, Betrayal, Life Behind Bars, Adapting, and Finally Breaking Free. The book covers the family business, the fraud case, and his time in prison.

He also hosts a podcast, Nightmare Success In and Out. The show features interviews with people who have been through the criminal justice system and rebuilt afterward. Guests include former prisoners, advocates, and others who describe reentry and recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What was Brent Cassity convicted of?

Brent Cassity pleaded guilty in 2013 to mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and willfully permitting a felon to engage in the business of insurance. The charges came from his role in the National Prearranged Services prepaid funeral fraud.

Q: How long was Brent Cassity's sentence?

A federal court in St. Louis sentenced him to five years, or 60 months, in November 2013. His father, Doug Cassity, received nine years and seven months.

Q: What was National Prearranged Services?

National Prearranged Services was a St. Louis-area company that sold prepaid funeral contracts. Customers paid in advance, but the company did not hold the funds in trust or insurance as required. It operated as a Ponzi-like scheme for more than fifteen years before collapsing in 2008.

Q: How many people lost money in the NPS fraud?

More than 97,000 victims lost money, including individual customers, funeral homes, insurers, and financial institutions across at least sixteen states. Total losses ran past $450 million.

Q: Where did Brent Cassity serve his sentence?

He served his five-year sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. He has since been released.

Q: What does Brent Cassity do now?

He wrote a memoir titled Nightmare Success and hosts a podcast, Nightmare Success In and Out, that interviews people who have been through the criminal justice system and rebuilt their lives.