BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A south Georgia bank director accused
of losing millions of investor dollars before vanishing was homeless and
worked odd jobs before his arrest earlier this week, a U.S. marshal
told a federal judge Thursday.
U.S. District Judge James Graham in
Brunswick formally notified Aubrey Lee Price of the charges against
him. The 47-year-old was arrested Tuesday during a traffic stop on
Interstate 95 in the coastal Georgia city. The judge set a bond hearing
for Monday in Savannah.
Price had disappeared in June 2012 after
sending a rambling letter to his family and acquaintances that
investigators described as a confession. The letter said he had lost
millions in investors’ dollars and planned to kill himself by jumping
from a ferry in Florida.
A Florida judge declared him dead a year
ago, but FBI authorities had said they didn’t believe Price was dead and
continued to search for him.
The U.S. marshal said at the hearing
Thursday that Price told authorities he’d been working as a migrant
worker, accepting cash for odd jobs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
reported (http://bit.ly/1l4jBJR).
An FBI spokesman said Wednesday
that Price told authorities his family didn’t know he was still alive
and that he had returned to Georgia to renew the tag on his truck. It
wasn’t clear where he’d been for the previous 18 months.
Price was
indicted in federal court in Savannah in July 2012 on charges of taking
$21 million from a small south Georgia bank where he was director. He
was also accused of taking many millions more from investors in his
money management business. He faces federal wire fraud charges in New
York.
Price left his home in south Georgia on June 16, 2012,
telling his family he was headed to Guatemala for business, authorities
have said. Two days later, Price’s family and acquaintances received
letters saying he was going to Key West to board a ferry headed to Fort
Meyers and planned to jump off somewhere along the way to end his life.
"My
depression and discouragement have driven me to deep anxiety, fear and
shame. I am emotionally overwhelmed and incapable of continuing in this
life," said a rambling confession letter investigators believe was
written by Price.
"I created false statements, covered up my losses and deceived and hurt the very people I was trying
to help," the letter said.
Credit
card records showed he purchased dive weights and a ferry ticket. The
ferry ticket was scanned at the boarding point, and security camera
footage released by the FBI about six weeks after his disappearance
showed Price at the Key West, Fla., airport and ferry terminal on the
day he disappeared.
He was arrested Tuesday when Glynn County
sheriff’s deputies pulled over a 2001 Dodge on the interstate because
they thought its window tint was too dark, Sheriff E. Neal Jump was
quoted by the Journal-Constitution as saying. Deputies arrested Price
after finding fake IDs in the vehicle.
The U.S. Coast Guard says
the 47-year-old’s disappearance prompted a search by aircraft. The
agency says the search put rescuers in harm’s way unnecessarily and cost
the agency more than $173,000.
Creating a hoax or making a false
distress call is a felony. The maximum penalty for making a false
distress call is six years in prison, a $5,000 fine, a $250,000 criminal
fine and reimbursement to the Coast Guard.
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Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
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