A man from Jacksonville, Florida who reportedly faked his death while in Venezuela in 2013 was arrested last Saturday on alleged fraud charges.

A life insurance company filed a lawsuit against Jose Lantigua, a 62-year-old businessman, alleging that the latter was alive and was not supposed to claim payments from them. The company also accuses the furniture store owner of faking his death while vacationing in Venezuela.

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Lantigua had reportedly acquired an illness which led to his demise. However, the large debt of his business prompted the life insurance firm to launch an investigation which went on for two years.

Hartford Life and Annuity Life Insurance Co., which initially thought they were being duped, found out that one of the workers of Lantigua was paid to state that his body was cremated. Also, the companies claim that Lantigua assigned a local creditor to get his benefit claims for him before his faked death.

In response to the lawsuit, Lantigua's son fired back, saying the insurance companies falsified the investigation and claimed that the companies revoked Lantigua's death certificate from Venezuela. The judge handling the case did rule that the papers were indeed faked but there is no point person yet as to who was responsible for faking the papers.

If Lantigua is found guilty of fraud charges, he will have to pay US$9 million. The lawyers representing the family already withdrew from the case, saying they are shocked about the lawsuit since they were made to believe that Lantigua is already dead.

Lantigua was arrested together with his wife while driving around.

It is also not yet clear if Lantigua had used another name or identification after he faked his death.

Tagsfake death, Jose Lantigua, Fraud, life insurance