LOS ANGELES , USA - Two California women created phantom identities, killed them off and then staged fake funerals before cashing life insurance policies, justice officials said Thursday.

Justice authorities in Los Angeles said the women had sought to pocket US$750,000 (S$1.14 million) in the scam, which involved two bogus funeral ceremonies and possibly 'several more'.

The phony funerals saw the two women - Faye Shilling, 60 and Jean Crump, 67 - purchase burial plots and weigh down caskets to create the impression a body was inside, officials alleged.

Shilling and Crump were arrested on Wednesday and are charged with mail and wire fraud. Two other people implicated in the case have pleaded guilty.

The indictment said Shilling, a medical worker, and Crump, an employee at now-defunct mortuary in Long Beach, defrauded multiple insurance companies over a three-year period.

Justice officials said the women would typically request funds from lending companies that advance cash to cover funeral expenses in exchange for a portion of the deceased's life insurance policy.

'This case demonstrates in shocking detail how far some white-collar criminals will go to facilitate their frauds,' United States Attorney Thomas O'Brien said in a statement.

Shilling and Crump face two counts of wire fraud and three counts of mail fraud. If convicted of the five counts they face a maximum sentence of 100 years in federal prison.