VALDOSTA —
A federal grand jury indicted a missing South Georgia bank director with Lowndes County connections Wednesday in Savannah.
Aubrey Lee Price was indicted on a bank fraud charge, according to court documents. Prosecutors say his actions led to the depletion of the cash assets and reserves of Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey.
Price already faces federal charges in New York, where authorities have accused him of embezzling $17 million.
Locally, according to the Georgia Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority online deed records, Price purchased a home in Lowndes County’s Stone Creek for $242,000 on May 24 of this year. His family reportedly has earlier Valdosta ties.
Price became a director of the Georgia bank after a company he controlled bought a controlling portion of the bank’s stock in 2010.
Price disappeared in mid-June. A rambling confession that investigators believe he wrote indicates that he planned to kill himself.
His family has told authorities they believe he’s dead. Investigators aren’t sure and have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Price has ties to Florida and Georgia and may travel to Venezuela and Guatemala, according to the FBI. He was last seen aboard a ferry sailing from Key West, Fla., to Fort Myers, according to various media reports.
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 on Friday.
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.
Local News
Related Photos
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Wendy Cross looks out from her food truck as she waits for the lunch time crowd Tuesday, July 10, 2012, in Atlanta. After penning a rambling confession to financial regulators and writing notes to his family, south Georgia bank director Aubrey Lee Price boarded a ferry in Key West and disappeared. Now local and federal investigators are trying to determine whether Aubrey Lee Price killed himself or whether he slipped away with $17 million dollars of investors� money, including $300,000 of Cross'. Cross said she�s shocked and devastated by the loss of her savings and is going to have to sell the truck because she needs the money to live.(AP Photo/David Goldman)
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An undated image provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a wanted poster for Aubrey Lee Price. Local and federal investigators are trying to determine whether Aubrey Lee Price killed himself or whether he slipped away with $17 million dollars of investorsí money. (AP Photo/FBI)
Discussion
Grand jury indicts missing bank director
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