CRIMINAL PENALTIES

(a) A person who is an individual, firm, association, corporation, or municipality, or an officer, agent, or employee of an individual, firm, association, corporation, or municipality, commits an offense if the person sells, offers to sell, or advertises for sale an interment right in a plot and, before a fund is established for the cemetery in which the plot is located as provided by this chapter, represents that the plot is under perpetual care. An offense under this subsection is a Class A misdemeanor. This subsection does not prevent an aggrieved party or the attorney general from maintaining a civil action for the recovery of damages caused by an injury resulting from an offense under this subsection. (b) A person who is an individual, firm, association, corporation, or municipality, or an officer, agent, or employee of an individual, firm, association, corporation, or municipality, commits an offense if the person knowingly defalcates or misappropriates assets of a fund. An offense under this subsection is punishable as if it were an offense under Section 32.45, Penal Code. (c) A person commits an offense if the person collects money for the purchase of a memorial, as defined by Section 711.001, and knowingly defalcates or misappropriates the funds. An offense under this subsection is punishable as if it were an offense under Section 32.45, Penal Code. This subsection does not prevent an aggrieved party or the attorney general from maintaining a civil action for the recovery of damages, or the commissioner from maintaining an administrative action for restitution, caused by an injury resulting from an offense under this subsection.