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QUEENS WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
Trump clan fi nal resting place is a mismanaged
mess, State Attorney General James alleges
BY CHRISTINE CHUNG, THE CITY
This story was originally
published on Sept. 3,
2019 by THE CITY.
Digging deep into the
operations of a Queens
graveyard, state Attorney
General Letitia James sued
leaders of Lutheran All
Faiths Cemetery Tuesday
for alleged mismanagement
she says let its longtime
boss to retire with a pot
of gold.
Among the more than
540,000 people laid to rest
in the 225-acre expanse,
which some reports say has
seen better days: Fred and
Mary Trump, the parents
of President Donald Trump,
as well as his late brother
Fred Trump Jr.
The civil complaint
filed in Manhattan state
Supreme Court stems from
routine audit of assets
by the New York State
Division of Cemeteries,
which revealed that Daniel
Austin Sr. received a
$900,000 lump sum shortly
before retiring as Lutheran
All Faiths’ president in 2014
and becoming board chair.
His successor as
president of the Middle
Village cemetery was his
son, Daniel Austin Jr., also
a defendant in the attorney
general’s lawsuit.
The complaint
describes “extraordinary
misconduct” by the duo.
James accuses Austin
Sr. of extracting “enormous
financial benefits” from the
cemetery to enrich himself
and his son — “enabled
by the complacency” of
the six other defendants,
all current or former paid
board members.
Among their actions,
James alleges, was
making mortgage loans to
relatives using restricted
trust funds belonging to
the cemetery, collecting
unwarranted fees and
ignoring auditors’
recommendations.
“The defendants
funded their overspending
with regular unlawful
incursions into a
segregated trust fund that
the Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, on Sept. 3, 2019. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
is expressly protected
under New York law for
the care and maintenance
of individual burial plots,”
the complaint reads.
The board members,
charged with financial
management of the
cemetery, hired treasurers
whom the lawsuit alleges
could not identify “basic
elements of the cemetery’s
balance sheet.” The
board also allowed past
chairman Daniel Austin
Jr. to resign in August
2018 with full pension
benefits after removing
him for stealing more
than $60,000 from the
burial ground’s operating
funds, according to
court documents.
The board let Austin Sr.
repay the embezzled sum
on his son’s behalf without
interest, according to
the complaint. At the
time of his retirement
in 2014 after 24 years
as president, the senior
Austin earned $325,000
annually, according to the
attorney general.
Austin Sr., a former
NYPD detective raised in
Glendale, said on Tuesday
evening he did not want
to comment on the suit
“because I just found out
myself five minutes ago.”
Perpetual Care and
Disrepair
The cemetery’s
website describes it as
a “picturesque” final
resting place with grave
plots that are accessible
to people of different
faiths and income
brackets. It also touts the
“many improvements and
upgrades” made under
the leadership of Daniel
Austin Sr.
But for years, families
of those buried at the
cemetery bordering
Metropolitan Avenue have
bemoaned the grounds,
which they describe as in
a state of utter disrepair
— toppled gravestones,
overgrown grass being
colonized by weeds, roads
riddled with potholes.
In an interview
with the Queens Daily
Eagle last year, Austin
Sr. attributed frayed
conditions to families’
failure to pay for upkeep.
This money is stored
in a restricted fund
dedicated to perpetual
care — the same fund the
board tapped to “support
their overspending,”
the attorney general’s
filing contends. In
2017, the cemetery’s
auditor reported that
the board had drained $1
million in these sealed
funds to offset general
operating costs.
James is seeking
to remove all three
defendants still serving
on the board, restore
any assets that were lost
or stolen, seal off any
future payments to the
defendants, and recover
salaries previously paid
to them.
She also wants to
permanently bar the
defendants from ever
working in a fiduciary
role at another nonprofit
organization in
New York.
“This is totally
shocking and
disappointing, if true,”
said Councilmember Bob
Holden (D-Middle Village).
“I suspected there was
some change happening
when the cemetery fell
into disrepair, but I never
imagined something like
this. They used to work
with the community and
I know my neighbors will
be saddened by this.”
This story was
originally published
by THE CITY, an
independent, nonprofit
news organization
dedicated to hard-hitting
reporting that serves the
people of New York.