Did Duval businessman fake his death, leave millions in bills unpaid? [The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville]

Oct. 31--Dead or alive?

While companies maneuver for part of an Atlantic Beach businessman's estate, a life-insurance company is refusing to pay out on a multimillion-dollar policy for a man it says is still alive.

Jose Lantigua, a former finance executive who became the owner of Circle K Furniture, was traveling in April when he was reported dead in Venezuela.

The U.S. embassy in Caracas said he died in Rio Chico, a tourist town near the Caribbean coast, and said the 60-year-old Cuban native was cremated in South America.

His two stores -- on Jacksonville's Westside and Southside -- said in May they would be closing, and by June a probate judge was asked to oversee the breakup of his estate to settle bills that are approaching $10 million.

But while the claims have piled up, a company that was expected to shell out millions says it doesn't owe a dime.

"Our investigation has revealed that Mr. Lantigua is alive and living in Venezuela," a claim examiner at the Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company wrote this month to Lantigua's family's lawyer.

With no death, the letter added, "there is no benefit payable on this claim."

The answer has added a strange twist to an otherwise-ordinary court process, and invited speculation about what other surprises might be ahead.

"This case has gone from a standard insured-benefits case to a full-blown John Grisham novel," said Charles Jimerson, an attorney representing American Enterprise Bank, which says Lantigua pledged first rights on his insurance to get a $2 million loan.

"I'm expecting a phone call from Keith Morrison at 'Dateline,' " Jimerson said in jest.

A Jacksonville-based company, MrWink2 LLC, filed a claim to money from Lantigua's insurance policy in August, about 10 days before American Enterprise filed its claim in probate court. MrWink2, which is run by Michael Wienckowski, said Lantigua made an agreement in May 2012 that used his interest in the insurance policy to help secure a $1.7 million loan.

When interest is figured in, the company says it is owed $1.9 million now.

The policy with Hartford had a cash value of almost $2.5 million last year, court filings said.

Last week, Jimerson asked Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace for a "declaration of rights" that would spell out whose claims to Lantigua's money should take precedence.

Regardless of whose rights rank first, creditors are waiting for Hartford to back up its finding that Lantigua is alive.

In the letter from claims examiner Nancy Krogstad, the company said that a separate death investigation is "our normal process" whenever a policy holder dies overseas. But the letter doesn't describe any specific evidence that would lead them to think Lantigua wasn't dead.

"There's a lot of fact-finding that remains to be accomplished," Jimerson said.

A lawyer for Lantigua's family, Ray Driver, said he has no reason to doubt the death was real.

"I have a certified death certificate and a certificate of the death of a U.S. citizen abroad from our U.S. State Department. And I have not seen any evidence to refute those two pieces of paper," Driver said, though he declined to comment further.

Krogstad and Hartford's press office did not respond to a reporter's messages.

Lantigua's wife, Daphne Simpson, declined to talk with a reporter and Wienckowski did not return a phone call.

Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263

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