Wife Of Businessman Who Faked Death Charged With Conspiracy

July 20--The wife of Jacksonville businessman Jose Lantigua, who was arrested last year after being reported dead in Venezuela, was charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Daphne Simpson was named in a one-count court filing called an information describing her role in a conspiracy to fake Lantigua's death and collect millions from a string of life insurance companies.

Information filings are used when a person agrees to simply be charged without being indicted. The practice is commonly done when a defendant agrees in advance to plead guilty to a specific charge.

U.S. Magistrate James Klindt told Simpson to return Aug. 3 for an arraignment where she would also face federal charges from North Carolina about making a false statement to authorities.

Lantigua, owner of Circle K Furniture, was reported dead from complications from mad cow disease in 2013.

Simpson, 58, has been in Jacksonville's jail since March 2015, days after Lantigua was arrested near Asheville, N.C. She was with Lantigua when he was arrested, but was allowed to return home.

She has faced state-level insurance fraud charges over $9 million worth of life insurance claims filed after the supposed death, but she hadn't previously been charged federally.

State prosecutors on Wednesday turned over the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office -- effectively dropping the state charges -- said State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard.

The information filing said Lantigua bought a fake death certificate and cremation record in Venezuela and that Simpson later traveled to Caracas, the country's capital, to hand off money to him and collect documents from the U.S. embassy there that affirmed he had died.

The filing said Simpson had believed since before she married Lantigua that he was once a team leader for a military Special Operations unit.

When he was planning to disappear, the papers said, Lantigua told Simpson he had to fake his death because a drug cartel was looking for him over things that supposedly happened in his unit.

Lantigua was never a Special Operations soldier, the filing said, but Simpson was told her family and his could both be in danger if the cartel caught up to him.

Simpson knew she was doing something wrong, but "she was somewhat hoodwinked into it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Devereaux told Klindt, adding that she had good motivations.

Out of seven companies that insured Lantigua, three had paid a total of $856,000 before his arrest, the filing said.

Simpson could face up to five years in prison and a $1.7 million fine, but Devereaux told the magistrate Simpson was "pretty much penniless" and has been cooperative with investigators, which can lead to lighter sentencing.

Although still awaiting sentencing on passport fraud and identity theft convictions in North Carolina, Lantigua has been held since February as a federal prisoner at the Baker County jail.

Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263

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