Florida Retailer Proprietor Who Faked Demise for Insurance coverage Will get Sentenced Commuted

Floridians might bear in mind the unusual case of Jacksonville businessman Jose Lantigua, who faked his personal demise in 2013 in an try to gather hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in life insurance coverage proceeds. His deeds earned him a spot on the Coalition In opposition to Insurance coverage Fraud’s Corridor of Disgrace in 2015 after he was despatched to jail.

Immediately, Lantigua is a free man, for probably the most half. U.S. President Joe Biden final month commuted Lantigua’s 14-year sentence to time served, information websites reported. He had already been launched from jail and placed on dwelling detention greater than a yr in the past beneath a COVID-era federal program, and was considered one of a whole lot of people that acquired pardons or commutations within the waning days of the Biden administration, the Florida Instances-Union newspaper and others reported.

The person, now 71, was the proprietor of Circle Okay Furnishings in Jacksonville within the 2010s and was dealing with mounting money owed, in response to information studies. He labored along with his spouse to acquire faux demise certificates from Venezuela, after he claimed {that a} drug cartel was after him. When the spouse tried to say greater than $6 million in life insurance coverage proceeds, the insurer, The Hartford Life Insurance coverage Co., started investigating.

Lantigua’s son accused the insurance coverage firm of falsifying details about Venezuela nullifying the demise certificates, and a decide agreed that some papers had been faked, the Jacksonville Enterprise Journal reported on the time.

Within the midst of a number of lawsuits, Lantigua, in hiding and utilizing another person’s driver’s license, utilized for a passport. Federal authorities reportedly used facial recognition software program to find out that the picture on the passport software matched Lantigua, who had already made headlines for allegedly faking his demise, in response to court documents and ABC Information reports.

Authorities staked out his residence in North Carolina and stopped him while he was driving. The deception shortly unraveled, the Instances-Union famous, based mostly on data from court docket data and prosecutors.

Lantigua pleaded responsible. His spouse spent a yr in jail then pleaded responsible to federal prices, permitting her to stay on supervised launch.

After the commutation, Lantigua stays on supervised launch for 5 years. He was not absolved of his court-required $2.9 million in restitution. The 2015 indictment could be seen here.

From IJ in 2015: Florida Businessman Who Faked Death Arrested in North Carolina

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