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.
