Georgia banker who faked own death gets 30 years' prison for fraud
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A former Georgia bank director who faked his own death and disappeared for 1-1/2 years while under suspicion of embezzling and losing millions of dollars was sentenced on Tuesday to 30 years in prison. Aubrey Lee Price, 48, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield in Statesboro, Georgia, after pleading guilty in June to bank, wire and securities fraud. Price was also ordered to forfeit $51 million and compensate the investors and clients who were his victims, many of whom were elderly. Joshua Lowther, a lawyer for Price, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The defendant has been in custody since his Dec. 31, 2013 arrest during a routine traffic stop on near Brunswick, Georgia. He had been on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list. Price once worked as a Baptist minister, and some former parishioners submitted letters to Edenfield pleading for leniency. Prosecutors said Price lost much of the $21 million he embezzled from Montgomery Bank & Trust of Ailey, Georgia and hid his fraud by giving bogus account statements to bank officials. The bank failed soon after the defendant vanished in June 2012. Price was also accused of raising $51 million from more than 100 investors for investment funds he managed and concealing subsequent losses with fake account statements. Before disappearing, Price left letters hinting that he would commit suicide at sea and was last seen boarding a ferry in Key West, Florida. A judge later declared Price dead. The sentence covers charges brought by U.S. Attorneys Edward Tarver in Savannah, Georgia and Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn, New York. "Price engaged in a staggering betrayal of trust, leaving his elderly investors practically penniless, and at the same time, contributing to the collapse of a federally insured bank," Tarver said in a statement. "For his crimes, Price richly deserves the heavy sentence handed down today." Montgomery Bank & Trust was closed on July 6, 2012. The cases are U.S. v. Price, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Georgia, No. 12-cr-00010; and U.S. v. Price, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 13-cr-00058. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
