Funeral Director Accused of Funding Gambling Habit with Clients’ Payments

Philip Pietras, 51, from Connecticut, is charged with 60 criminal counts for embezzling funds from his funeral home business to support his gambling habit and lavish lifestyle. According to prosecutors, Pietras misused funds that clients had prepaid for funeral and burial services, using the money to support his lifestyle, including frequent trips to casinos nationwide.

Connecticut Police Arrest Pietras on Suspicion of Misusing Clients’ Payments for Gambling

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the investigation into Pietras began after an employee of a third-party firm that supports funeral homes with managing funeral contracts alerted authorities to potential irregularities at Pietras Family Funeral Homes’ Coventry location. These third-party firms, often referred to as preneed providers or funeral trust administrators, work with funeral homes to manage services such as trust funds, insurance policies, and escrow accounts.

The employee reported that during a routine review of client accounts, they discovered substantial withdrawals from various Pietras Family Funeral Home accounts, even though the designated beneficiaries were still alive. They also noted that several checks from preplanning clients had cleared, but the funds were never deposited into the accounts overseen by the third-party firm.

The arrest warrant used to take Pietras into custody on Tuesday referenced multiple gambling trips. These include visits to Connecticut’s tribal casinos, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, as well as frequent stays at the upscale Borgata in Atlantic City. Prosecutors also noted that Pietras gambled at Harrah’s Atlantic City, MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, and the now-closed Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which ceased operations in 2020.

Connecticut’s tribal casinos cooperated with the investigation, with Mohegan Sun revealing that rewards card data showed Pietras and his wife lost over $1.2 million between January 2010 and November 2024. While Foxwoods did not specify the couple’s net winnings or losses, it reported that they wagered more than $8 million over the same 14-year period. Both casinos confirmed that the Pietrases primarily played slot machines and also engaged in online gambling through DraftKings and FanDuel, the respective iGaming partners of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

The Defense Responds

According to the affidavit, when questioned by police, Pietras attributed the financial discrepancies to “accounting problems,” misfiled checks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the inconsistent timing of check deposits.

Furthermore, on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Alyce Alfano granted a request from Pietras’ legal team to reduce his bail from $800,000 to $200,000. Pietras later posted bail and was released. In arguing for the bail reduction, Pietras’ attorney stated that, to his knowledge, no prepaid client had been denied service.