A Cedar Hill, Texas man, who was convicted at trial on various federal felony offenses stemming from an identity (ID) theft conspiracy he ran in the metroplex from October 2009 to July 2013, was sentenced today, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Anthony Minor, 28, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 16 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $88,131 in restitution. A federal jury convicted Minor in September 2014 on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, five counts of bank fraud, one count of using or trafficking in an unauthorized access device, and two counts of aggravated identification theft.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

Minor is the last defendant convicted in the conspiracy to be sentenced. Other defendants pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge. Minor’s girlfriend, Tilisha Morrison, 25, of Dallas, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $88,131 in restitution. Katrina Thomas, 41, of Garland, Texas, was also sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, and she was ordered to pay $76,831 in restitution. Defendants Kario Butler, 29, of Mansfield, Texas; Cyrus Pritchett, 25, of Dallas; and Jamilah Karriem, 21, of Dallas and Desoto, Texas, were sentenced to time served. One defendant, Karen Mendoza, 44, most recently of Dallas, remains a fugitive.

Minor was the leader of the conspiracy. The government presented evidence at trial that he stole identities in a variety of ways, including purchasing them from a group of safe robbers and recruiting a Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) employee, Katrina Thomas, to steal more than 1000 identities from her Fannie Mae workstation. Once the IDs were in hand, Minor and Morrison accessed the victims’ bank accounts and performed hundreds of account take-overs. As part of the conspiracy, they recruited their co-conspirators to walk into banks and withdraw cash.

Law enforcement caught Minor and arrested him at the W Hotel in Dallas. Law enforcement found numerous stolen and fake IDs, counterfeit checks, a laptop computer containing a template for the Texas Department of Public Safety Temporary Driver License, a printer, and a $900 bottle of Dom Pérignon champagne he had just ordered from room service using one of the stolen credit cards. He had rented the room using another’s identification.

Minor and the conspirators stole personal identifying information for true Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase account holders (the victim-customers) and used this information to fraudulently access funds contained in their bank accounts. They also created false identities using the stolen personal identifying information.

The U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney P. J. Meitl and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher G. Poor prosecuted.

A 62-year-old Jacksonville businessman, reported dead two years ago, is not only very much alive, he’s behind bars in a North Carolina jail.

Jose Lantigua was pulled over in Buncombe County, N.C., on Saturday and now faces federal insurance fraud charges, according to The Florida Times-Union. It seems the former owner of financially strapped Circle K Furniture was reported dead two years ago while he was visiting Venezuela, the paper reported.

http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html

Lantigua’s wife, Daphne Simpson, 57, of Ponte Vedra Beach, was also arrested, but later released by federal agents. She was arrested again Saturday night when she returned to St. Johns County and it was clear to authorities there that she did, in fact, know her husband was alive.

The case against Lantigua began to unfold when the U.S. embassy in Caracas issued paperwork in 2013 meant to record an American’s death overseas. While some of Lantigua’s insurance companies began paying claims, others thought something smelled fishy and started looking into the possibility that the death had been faked, the paper reported.

Legal wrangling ensued over the next two years with two insurance companies – Hartford Life and Annuity Life Insurance Co. – claiming that a worker had been bribed to forge documents saying Lantigua had been cremated, WTOP reported. At one point, Lantigua’s son accused an insurance company of altering documents to make it appear as if the Venezuelan government voided the death certificate. While a judge ruled the papers were faked, he could never determine just who was responsible for the act, the station noted.

All speculation came to a crashing halt on Saturday when that traffic stop ended in Lantigua’s arrest. He now faces fraud charges in regard to those insurance policies that add up to about $9 million combined issued by a total of seven different companies.

Who will represent the family in the impending “post-death” legal fight remains unclear. It seems the lawyer that stood by the family during a number of civil suits has withdrawn from the case.

“I and the law firm were shocked to learn this morning that we have been defrauded by acting and relying on the information … that indicated he was dead,” the Times-Union quoted Joshua Woolsey of the Rogers Towers firm as saying.

Lantigua remained on a federal hold in the Buncombe County Jail as of Monday. No booking photo was available.

Lantigua’s wife was released from the St. John’s County Jail on $200,000 bond Monday, jail records indicate.

Lexington Firefighters quickly extinguished a house fire Monday morning and officials say that a drug lab was found in the home.

The fire happened at a home on the 500 block of Woodbine Drive. First responders found heavy smoke and flames in the basement but knocked the fire out quickly. A father and son live in the home and neighbors tell LEX 18 that it appeared the son was badly burned .  He was driven to the hospital by his girlfriend.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Officials confirm that the son has suffered life-threatening injuries. Hazmat is on scene and a family pet was decontaminated.

There was smoke damage to the rest of the home. Although the fire was knocked out quickly, officials believe that the family will have to relocate for the time being.

Lexington Firefighters quickly extinguished a house fire Monday morning and officials say that a drug lab was found in the home.

The fire happened at a home on the 500 block of Woodbine Drive. First responders found heavy smoke and flames in the basement but knocked the fire out quickly. A father and son live in the home and neighbors tell LEX 18 that it appeared the son was badly burned .  He was driven to the hospital by his girlfriend.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Officials confirm that the son has suffered life-threatening injuries. Hazmat is on scene and a family pet was decontaminated.

There was smoke damage to the rest of the home. Although the fire was knocked out quickly, officials believe that the family will have to relocate for the time being.

The suspect who allegedly shot a 9-year-old pleaded not guilty in court.

Police say Alberto Pinedas Contreras left town after being named a suspect in the March 7 shooting of a 9-year-old child on Russell Cave Road in Lexington.
Police say the little boy was riding in an SUV with his mother and two other siblings when a man in a white Maxima fired several shots in the area of hollow creek. 9-year-old Antonio was critically injured and is still in the hospital.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Before being named as a suspect, Contreras was picked up on a minor charge and booked into the Fayette County Detention Center. Before police could get a warrant for the assault, Alberto Pinedas Contreras was released from custody. He took off to West Virginia where he was picked u by police and immigration agents on March 12.
The judge referred Contreras’ case to the Public Defender’s office

A grand jury did not return an indictment in the case of a woman killed by a vehicle in Montgomery County earlier this year.

Sheriff’s detectives say a grand jury decided there wasn’t enough evidence to indict Adam Baker on a reckless homicide charge. 22-year-old Katrina Craver died when she was hit and killed on Nest Egg Road in late January. Deputies say she jumped on the back of Baker’s truck as he pulled out in the road.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Officials say that the two had been in an argument before the accident.

Baker told officials he didn’t know Craver had fallen from his truck.

Frankfort police are investigating a bizarre shooting situation that unfolded over the weekend. Police say that a grandfather shot a man Saturday night along Bellemeade Drive.

According to officers, a man was doing yard work while his three grandchildren were playing nearby. That’s when, he says, that a drunk stranger walked up to him and said something along the lines of “God has spoken to me and he told me to take the children.”

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

The drunken stranger then allegedly lunged at the grandfather. The grandfather immediately ran to his vehicle, grabbed a gun and shot the stranger in the leg.

As of now, no one has been charged, but the case will be presented to the grand jury.

A Laurel County man pleaded not guilty in court Monday after sheriff’s officials say he admitted to shooting and killing his own cousin.

Jonathan Humfleet is accused of shooting 21-year-old Clifford ‘CJ’ Humfleet inside of a home on Board Walk Circle in Laurel County. Dispatched received a call around 4:30 Sunday morning that someone had been shot inside Humfleet’s home .

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Deputies say when they arrived on the scene, everyone inside the home was intoxicated and they were told Jonathan Humfleet had taken off after the shooting. They found him a short time later hiding at a nearby church.

They say Jonathan Humfleet told them that he, CJ Humfleet and CJs brother River Humfleet got in to an argument. The arrest citation says he ended up with River’s pistol and shot CJ once in the chest.

Jonathan is charged with murder, 18 year old River Humfleet has been charged with facilitation to commit murder but he hasn’t been booked in to jail yet because he is in the hospital.

A Jacksonville businessman reported dead two years ago in Venezuela was arrested in North Carolina on alleged fraud charges on Saturday after his life insurance companies filed a lawsuit alleging he was alive and they shouldn’t be making payments.

Details of the charges against 62-year-old Jose Lantigua are unclear. But Saturday’s arrest ends two years of speculation about whether the former furniture store owner had faked an illness in 2013 while vacationing in Venezuela, leaving his business millions of dollars in debt.

http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html

His life insurance companies thought they were being swindled and launched an investigation saying the businessman was not dead after two lenders filed claims. The lawsuits by Hartford Life and Annuity Life Insurance also alleged a worker was bribed to falsify documents stating the businessman’s body was cremated. They also claim Lantigua fraudulently assigned benefits claims to a local creditor before he disappeared.

The South Florida Business Journal reports Lantigua’s son accused the insurance company of falsifying its investigation into his father’s death, accusing the company of lying about the Venezuelan government revoking his father’s death certificate.

The newspaper reported that the insurance company admitted a Venezuelan lawyer did alter documents to make it seem like the Venezuelan government nullified the death certificate. A judge ruled the papers were faked, but could not determine who faked them.

Fast forward to Saturday when officials stopped a car Lantigua was driving in with his wife in Buncombe County, NC.

A Jacksonville prosecutor said Lantigua faces insurance fraud charges in Florida involving policies worth $9m from seven companies.

Assistant State Attorney Joe Licandro said an arrest warrant for Lantigua had been issued more than a year ago, but prosecutors dropped it after problems emerged with some of the underlying information in the case. He said a new warrant charging Lantigua with insurance fraud and schemes to defraud was issued within the past week.

Licandro said no warrant had previously been issued for Lantigua’s wife because prosecutors weren’t sure until now whether she knew he was alive. Federal agents released her in North Carolina, but she was arrested on Saturday evening in Florida.

Attorney Joshua Woolsey, who has represented the family in several civil suits, said on Saturday that he and his law firm were withdrawing from the case.

“I and the law firm were shocked to learn this morning that we have been defrauded by acting and relying on the information that indicated he was dead,” Woolsey said.

It’s unclear whether Lantigua has retained new representation.

Police need help locating a missing man who walked away from a treatment center March 19.

Ryan Brocklehurst, 34, walked away from the center on Bangor Road in the Village of Lawrence. He was last seen around 11:15 a.m. on Thursday.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department said he was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark pants. Brocklehurst is considered endangered because he has no access to prescribed medications. He has very few contacts in southwest Michigan and even fewer places he might stay.

If you have any information, call the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department at (269) 657-3101