VALDOSTA —
The owner of a ferry that carried a missing investment adviser with Lowndes County ties told investigators that anyone jumping into the ocean would have been seen.
U.S. Coast Guard reports chronicle the last known sightings of Aubrey Lee Price, who vanished in June after boarding the ferry in Key West, Fla. Authorities say Price penned a suicide letter, saying he planned to buy dive weights then kill himself by jumping overboard.
The ferry owner and captain believe anyone jumping overboard would have been spotted, especially since 160 passengers were on board and it was daylight, according to the Coast Guard reports obtained by The Associated Press.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Price, who faces several fraud charges. Price had used a Visa card to purchase his ferry ticket, and investigators believe he then boarded the ferry in Key West.
“The ticket was scanned and that indicates that whoever had the ticket did get on the boat,” the reports state.
A head count was also conducted when passengers boarded the ferry, but no head count was done when they got off in Fort Myers, Fla.
“There are several cameras on the ferry but none of them record,” the reports state.
A Coast Guard search of waters off Florida’s coast yielded no trace of Price.
The reports were obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
His family has told authorities they believe he’s dead. Investigators have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Price purchased a residence earlier this year in Lowndes County’s Stone Creek. His family had previous Valdosta connections. He also has ties to Florida and may travel to Venezuela and Guatemala, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was last seen aboard the ferry sailing from Key West, Fla., to Fort Myers.
The case has garnered national attention as well as federal indictments.
An estimated $17 million of the missing $40 million was from Montgomery Bank & Trust — a small bank in Ailey about 170 miles southeast of Atlanta — where Price acted as bank director, according to the bank’s website. That bank was shut down in July.
In late 2010, some of Price’s investors put at least $10 million into MB&T, which was listed in December 2010 as the state’s most troubled institution, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. After locals contributed an additional $4 million, the investment was hailed as a success and was even highlighted in a January 2011 front page-article in the AJC.
The SEC now knows that the investment was worthless as the assets have been depleted and most of its reserves were lost in trading.
In addition to wire fraud, the SEC alleges that Price hid losses between $20 million and $23 million from clients during the past two years.
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