JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – President Joe Biden granted clemency to a Jacksonville man who faked his death in South America so his wife could collect $5 million in life insurance money.
RELATED: Man who faked death gets 14-year prison sentence
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Jose Lantigua, 71, the former owner of the Circle K furniture stores in Jacksonville pleaded guilty in 2016 to bank fraud and committing to wire and mail fraud.
He was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison with five years of supervised release.
Court documents said Lantigua’s business was $11 million in debt when he started lying to creditors and his wife, Daphne Simpson, telling her a drug cartel was out to get him and their lives were in danger.
Lantigua then traveled to Venezuela and faked his death. His wife even held a funeral for him, and then filed to collect on his life insurance policies.
The U.S. District Judge considered Simpson a victim even though she spent much of the money. She still had to take care of the details after Lantigua faked his death, including helping him live under a new identity.
Lantigua told the court it was all his fault and he was the reason that his wife was involved.
The government was seeking $2.6 million in restitution from the couple. Simpson was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $100 per month toward restitution.
Lantigua was released on Dec. 20, 2024.
The clemency followed a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.