Trouble With Corey Haim Funeral Fund?

Owner of a celebrity memorabilia company criticizes Corey Haim's mom for allegedly using son's funeral to solicit donations for herself

By Whitney English Apr 12, 2010 8:10 PMTags
Corey Haim, Lucas20th Century Fox

The dude who stepped up to pay for Corey Haim's funeral is now accusing the late actor's mom of misleading the public—and misappropriating funds earmarked to cover the Lost Boy's burial.

While mother Judy Haim and other family members have declined to address his allegations, Michael Kronick, the owner of the celebrity memorabilia company Startifacts, tells E! News he has canceled a check to fund Haim's funeral.

"When the story broke that Judy Haim came out saying she needed money to bury him, we got in contact with the family. They told me they needed money to transport the body, to have the funeral," says Kronick. "And I said, 'OK, I'm going to help you.' I literally had a five-figure check FedExed overnight."

However, more than a week after the actor's burial in his native Toronto, Kronick says the check still had not been cashed. He decided to do some investigating and says he made a troubling discovery.

"They have the funeral, I never hear from them," Kronick says. "I called the funeral home. The facts are, from day one the funeral was taken care of. Corey's funeral was paid for and it was before Judy went on the news asking for money from people."

The souvenir collector claims that the services had been taken care of by the funeral home and that all donations the family received from him and the public were going to go to Judy's cancer treatment.

"To this day they keep asking the public for donations for Corey's funeral. What about the fans who sent in $20? They never needed money for the funeral. They manipulated me into this emergency donation."

The Haim family has not returned calls seeking comment.

Last week, Corey Feldman announced that, at the behest of Judy, there would not be a public memorial in California for the actor.

Meanwhile, Feldman joined several of Haim's other close friends—including Kristy Swanson, Robyn Lively, Nicole Eggert, Todd Bridges and former Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough—for a private memorial dinner in honor of the actor, who died March 10.

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Before his tragic fall, he was a Hollywood hero. Check out the Remembering Corey Haim gallery.