STATESBORO, Georgia–A former investment adviser was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday for committing fraud that fuelled a bank's collapse, cost investors millions of dollars and turned the accused banker into a fugitive who was ultimately–and mistakenly–declared dead.
Aubrey Lee Price, 48, returned to US District Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty in June to bank, wire and securities fraud. Price lost much of the US$40 million he raised from about 115 clients at his private investment firm. Prosecutors say he also misspent, embezzled and lost US$21 million belonging to the Montgomery Bank and Trust in rural southeast Georgia, where Price served as bank director.
Price vanished in June 2012, a few weeks before the bank closed with its assets and reserves depleted, and he left rambling letters saying he planned to jump off a ferryboat. In December 2013, a year after a Florida judge declared him dead at his wife's request, Price was captured in a routine traffic stop on the Georgia coast.
Price cut a plea deal with prosecutors that called for a maximum of 30 years in prison and in exchange for his guilty pleas to three fraud counts. Price also agreed to pay tens of millions in restitution for bank and investor money that he lost, despite having convinced the court to appoint him a lawyer because he had no money to hire one.
AP