A former director of a Georgia bank who went AWOL when his bank failed has admitted that he embezzled millions of dollars from the bank and faked his own suicide.
Montgomery Bank & Trust was seized and closed down by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance in July 2012.
The $174 million financial institution was expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Deposit Insurance Fund more than $75 million.
| The previous month, Aubrey Lee Price, a director for the Ailey, Ga., bank, went missing.
Price had sent suicide letters to acquaintances admitting embezzlement and suggesting he planned to throw himself off a high-speed ferry boat after it left the coast of Florida, according to the Department of Justice. But a search by the U.S. Coast Guard turned up no body. A criminal complaint was filed against Price in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. A January 2013 Justice Department announcement indicated that while Price was on the lam, he was charged by a federal grand jury with securities fraud and wire fraud.
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FBI photo of Aubrey Lee Price
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Price eventually turned up in Brunswick, Ga., where he was arrested on Dec. 31, 2013, after presenting a false identification to a member of the Glynn County Georgia Sheriff’s Department office during a routine traffic stop.
On Thursday, Price pled guilty to bank, securities, and wire fraud. The plea resolves charges brought in the Southern District of Georgia and the Eastern District of New York.
The Justice Department announcement put the amount embezzled at more than $21 million.
He faces up to three decades in prison and millions of dollars in restitution when he sentenced.
