Jose Lantigua; phony Ranger, phony dead guy
The Associated Press tells the story of this Jose Lantigua fellow who faked his own death to cheat insurance companies out of eight million bucks, and, oh, guess what? He pretended to be a Ranger before he faked his death;
Lantigua, who had emigrated to the U.S. as a youth, purchased Circle K Furniture in 2008 after claiming to have served more than 20 years as a senior officer and in Airborne Ranger special operations in the U.S. Army, where he claimed to have earned the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest military honor for bravery. Records released by the Army contained no record of Lantigua seeing combat and no record of his serving in special forces or of his being awarded the Silver Star. He was enlisted for two years in the 1970s, then served in the Army Reserve from 1980-2002, records show.
He traveled to Venezuela and mysteriously died there and then he was cremated and the dearly departed ashes were returned to the family and planted. But the insurance company suspected foul play and refused to pay the claims which all paid off for them Saturday when Lantigua and his wife were arrested in their North Carolina home where the brainiac was hiding out.
Lying about their military service is a gateway drug.
Category: Phony soldiers
“Lying about their military service is a gateway drug.”
Until I came upon this site, I would have said that the fakers did it all for recognition.
My education by the members of this community has taught me that for every Stolen Valor claim, these claims are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
You would think that prosecutors in this country would recognize that.
I read an article the other day that had me convinced that they do it just to flatter the real Rangers, SF, SEAL’s etc.
How long before the DRG say that TAH “killed” him too?
Its just a case of “Self Murder” that turned out to be nothing more than Character Assassination.
North Carolina: “Where the weak grow strong and the strong go great.”
Oh bother: “grow great.”
I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily always true, Ex-344MP. But it does seem to be an indicator that there’s a good likelihood of other shady behavior along with the bogus military claims.
I thought that that was implied, pardon me Hondo 🙂
De nada, amigo. (smile)
A mere $8 million? Small potatoes, if you ask me. Amateur, and he got caught, too. I guess running a furniture store is just not exciting enough for some people.
Knew of a guy in El Paso who embezzled $28,000 and got sent up for 7 years as a result. There’s a reason most of ’em asre called ‘dumb crooks’.
Yep.
You’d think someone who was going to try and score $8M through insurance fraud by faking his own death would have the sense to hide out somewhere else besides his own vacation home. But that’s were they caught the guy. (smile)
Thankfully this turd muffin got caught. Most of them do. Eventually. That’s why they’re criminals and not legit folks. They’re too fucking stupid.
Smart criminals become politicians.
😀
“Smart criminals become politicians.”
(spew)
Not to contradict but it’s anedoctal at this point.
Difference between causation and correlation as it were.
What we need is to have someone put together a study that quantifies this. Someone that specializes in criminal psychology. With all the work being done there are certainly enough proven case studies all it takes is some academic research to be put to it in order to find and prove links.
Otherwise the law won’t recognize it as anything other then a stunt.
I’m a midge. this was meant in reference to the first comment about why this isn’t recognized as a path to other bad behavior.
Yep.
Hey, the AP makes being an enlisted troop sound like a bad thing.
But AP, you have his records. Spill the beans, we want to know. If he spent 22 years (1980-2002) in the Reserves, what was he discharged as.
Was he indeed a member of the Spec4 Mafia at discharge??
I’ve seen a few gray-haired specialists, but most of them were Guard rather than Reserve.
My best guess is that he was on a secret mission for All-Points Logistics.
They will disavow any knowledge.
Maybe his toupee is the rug that was part of the lawsuit against All Pounts Logistics filed by that former employee from their Reston office.
The prison Dutch Rudder club has a new member !!!
Whose ashes are those that got returned and buried.
Is this a murder investigation now and insurance fraud, and stolen valor, and is this just the tip of the iceberg. This guy is going for the long one here…life sentence with new butt buddies.
Half right, anyway. He’ll never be a Ranger, but one day…