Wife of Jose Lantigua, businessman who faked death, pleading guilty to fraud scheme

July 20--The wife of businessman Jose Lantigua, who was arrested last year after being reported dead in Venezuela, has agreed to forfeit more than $800,000 as part of resolving federal fraud charges.

Daphne Simpson was named Wednesday in a one-count court filing called an information that describes 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 plead guilty without being indicted, but she hasn't formally answered that charge yet.

Simpson is scheduled for a 4 p.m. hearing in front of U.S. Magistrate Monte Richardson.

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

Simpson, 58, has been Jacksonville's jail since March 2015, days after Lantigua was arrested near Asheville, N.C.

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 turned over their case to the U.S. Attorney's Office Wednesday, said State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard.

The information filing said Lantigua bought a fake death certificate in Venezuela and that Simpson later traveled to Caracas, the country's capital, to hand off money and documents to him.

The filing said Simpson had believed since before she married Lantigua that he had once been 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 happened in his Special Operations unit.

Lantigua was never a Special Operations soldier, the filing said.

Check back with Jacksonville.com or see Thursday's Times-Union for details.

Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263

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