'Wanted' Banker Who Faked His Suicide Captured After Cops Stop Him For Tinted Windows
Aubrey Lee Price, 47, went on the run in 2012 after writing friends a rambling note admitting to "horrendous financial mistakes" and saying "it would be better for me to exit this world."
Of course, Price - who was last seen boarding a ferry in Key West, Fla. - did not leave the world. He was ultimately caught in his Brunswick, Ga. after cops pulled him over and realized who he was after just a little questioning, the Daily News reported.
The Glynn County Sheriff's Office in Georgia booked him on New Year's Eve and noted he was being held for federal authorities.
A federal warrant was put out for Price's arrest in New York in June 2012 after he was charged with wire fraud. Price was also hit with a civil action by the SEC that year claiming he perpetrated a massive fraud through two investor funds while he was the director of the Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey, Ga.
The two funds suffered massive losses and there were also "frequent large wires transferred out of the account," according to the SEC complaint. Price allegedly made up account statements with bogus returns on them to cover these big losses and illicit transfers.
Price was also accused of embezzling millions from the troubled bank that he directed, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in June 2012. After his disappearance, the AJC spoke with clients who didn't think Price's suicide was authentic.
"I don't believe he's dead. I believe he planned for this exit," Wendy Cross, who lost her $364,000 nest egg by investing with Price, told the AJC.
In his "suicide note" posted by the AJC, Price indicated that he'd been hounded by investors and said he wished he had come clean earlier.
"The phone calls from certain angry bank investors was difficult to bear and I continued to try to and hold out hope to them. This was very painful," Price said. "I should have just acknowledged all the painful losses and just dealt with it."