If you thought someone you knew was dead and then two years later, you heard a report that he is not dead at all and has just been arrested, how would that make you feel? I guess it would all hinge on your particular relationship to the man. What if he was a businessman who happened to owe you, and a few other people, some money?
This is the situation surrounding a Jacksonville businessmen who was reported to have passed away in Venezuela two years ago. As afar as anybody knew, sixty-two year old Jose Lantigua. Lost his life whilst on vacation in that country in 2013. SO how did he get found and subsequently arrested only recently?
Jose Lantigua was arrested on alleged fraud charges in North Carolina after his life-insurance companies filed a lawsuit which suggested that he was in fact alive and so they should not be having to make payments. At this stage, the specifics of the charges and allegations remain a little unclear however, one thing that has been cleared up is the fact that he is not dead. This follows speculation ever since his disappearance as to whether he had faked his own death or not, after leaving his business millions of dollars in debt.
The lawsuits filed by bot Hartford Life and Annuity Life Insurance Co. alleged that not only is the businessman alive and well (they appear to be correct on that part), but also that a worker was bribed by Lantigua to falsify documents that stated his body had been cremated.
According to The Jacksonville Business Journal, Lantigua’s son accused one of the insurance companies of falsifying their investigation in to his father’s death. The son is reported to have claimed the company lied about his father’s death certificate being revoked by the Venezuelan government.
Interestingly, the insurance company did admit that a lawyer in Venezuela had altered documents to make it appear as though the Venezuelan government had rejected the death certificate. A judge ruled accordingly, saying that the documents had been faked but could not point the finger at who might be responsible.
So Lantigua was stopped in North Carolina recently in the car with his wife. As it turns out, there had been a warrant for Lantigua’s arrest issued about one year ago although there was never an arrest warrant issued for his wife as, up until now, the police couldn’t prove that she knew whether her husband was alive or not.
Lantigua faces insurance fraud charges in Florida involving policies worth $9 million from seven companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment