Former Aiken funeral home employee pleads guilty to bank fraud charge (2024)

A former Aiken funeral home employee could spend up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Thomas Allen Bateman Jr., a former funeral director at George Funeral Home, pleaded guilty Aug. 14 at the Matthew J. Perry Federal Courthouse in Columbia.

In exchange for pleading guilty, Bateman received penalties of up to 30 years in prison, a fine of $1 million, a term of supervised release not to exceed five years and a $100 special assessment.

Bateman will be sentenced at a later date.

A federal grand jury indicted Bateman on two counts related to bank fraud May 21.

Columbia attorney Marion Moses represented Bateman.

Scott Matthews and Winston Holliday represented the federal government.

A federal grand jury indicted George Funeral Home owner Cody Anderson and Bateman in a superseding indictment July 16.

Anderson pleaded not guilty to the charges July 31.

The charges stem from Anderson's attempt to probate the estate of Mary Margaret Wenzel Crandall using a will she signed in 2020.

Crandall named Anderson her personal representative in the will.

A personal representative works to distribute the assets of the dead person in accordance with the person's wishes.

Crandall left all of her assets to Bateman.

Federal prosecutors alleged Crandall signed the will between May 1, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2020 in a car in the parking lot of George Funeral Home.

Prosecutors allege Bateman drove Crandall to the funeral from the nursing home in which she resided.

Anderson ordered three other George Funeral Home employees to serve as witnesses for the will, prosecutors alleged in the superseding indictment.

Those employees didn't know what they were witnessing, prosecutors added.

After Crandall died Jan. 5, 2022, Anderson filed paperwork the next day to get her estate which was valued in the millions probated.

Anderson also attempted to use the will to obtain Crandall's assets from a bank and a brokerage firm, prosecutors said.

Second Judicial Circuit Judge Courtney Clyburn Pope— the case was moved from probate court due to a dispute over the validity of the will — eventually threw the will out because it didn’t meet the witness requirements under South Carolina law to be considered a valid will.

When the will was thrown out, Crandall’s estate was distributed according to a will she had signed in 2001.