PHILADELPHIA — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)), published as received.
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Gregory J. Stefan Jr., 56, of Upper Merion, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge Juan R. Sánchez to seven counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing a false tax return.
The defendant was charged by superseding indictment in December 2024, arising from fraudulent business practices he employed in the operation and management of headstone sales companies, and his failure to report on his individual income tax returns any income he received from those companies.
As detailed in court filings and statements, between January 2018 and September 2023, Stefan — through his businesses 1843 LLC and Colonial Memorials — defrauded hundreds of grieving customers by entering into contracts to provide custom headstone and engraving services for their deceased loved ones that he knew he would not deliver on the promised timeline, if at all.
Stefan demanded large up-front payments from his customers (often 100% of the purchase price) but routinely failed to fulfill their orders by the projected delivery date. When customers reached out to request updates on the status of their overdue orders, he either ignored them or employed lulling tactics and assured them that their orders would be delivered shortly without taking any steps to follow through on those assurances.
In all, Stefan failed to deliver, or provide refunds for, orders placed by almost 500 customers who had paid him in excess of $1.5 million. Stefan also falsely reported on his federal income tax returns that he earned no income whatsoever each year from 2018 through 2021.
As part of his federal plea agreement, Stefan accepted responsibility for similar crimes charged in 10 local cases across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, which resulted in an additional $210,000 loss to victims.
The defendant will be sentenced on a date to be determined and faces a maximum possible term of 152 years’ imprisonment.
This case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Rice.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office thanks the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, Northampton County District Attorney’s Office, Bergen County (N.J.) Prosecutor’s Office, Burlington County (N.J.) Prosecutor’s Office, Gloucester County (N.J.) Prosecutor’s Office, Middlesex County (N.J.) Prosecutor’s Office, Passaic County (N.J.) Prosecutor’s Office, and the Delaware Department of Justice for their assistance in investigating and reaching a global resolution of this case.
