Banker who tried to fake death off Key West marks his first year in federal prison, release year is 2040
An admitted fraudster who was declared dead after vanishing from Key West but later found very much alive marks off the first year of his 30-year federal prison sentence this week.
Aubrey Lee Price, now 49, faked a suicide leap from a high-speed Key West ferry en route to Fort Myers on June 16, 2012. The FBI and federal prosecutors called it a desperate bid to escape from a $70 million fraud and embezzlement scandal in Georgia.
Price, a former minister formally declared dead by a North Florida judge in December 2012, was arrested 12 months later while driving a pickup with an expired tag and counterfeit driver's license on I-95 in Georgia.
Key West police Sgt. Matthew Haley spent two days in June 2012 retracing Price's hours-long trip to Key West after Price's family and others received apparent suicide notes sent by priority mail from Key West.
"My investigation in Key West revealed it was highly unlikely that Price committed suicide and was alive," Haley said in a Friday e-mail. "I felt great satisfaction when Price was arrested."
When arrested, Price had been living in a North Florida trailer where he maintained a marijuana grow house in a garage. Once a clean-cut financial investor, family man and religious missionary, Price had dyed his long hair and goatee black.
"He had equipment in his home to make fake identification and was also in possession of handguns and multiple cell phones -- all used to facilitate dealing marijuana and cocaine," says a December 2014 account of the case posted on the FBI's website.
Price was accused of losing about $50 million of investors' money in two private management funds and lying to his 115 investors about balances in their accounts.
"Price lost almost all of that money through speculative trading and to cover up his losses, Price posted fake account statements on a secure website that fraudulently reflected fictitious assets and fabricated investment returns for each investor," the U.S. Attorney's Office of Southern Georgia said after Price's sentencing.
Price went on to embezzle another $21 million from Montgomery Bank and Trust, a Georgia bank he acquired, to gamble on more risky investments.
Pressured by the huge losses, Price fled to Mexico after disembarking from the ferry in Fort Myers. A security system at the time checked passengers at boarding but not when they left the ferry, Haley reported.
Price's carry-on bag, seen in video footage of the boarding, was not left aboard the ferry. The boat captain told Haley "it would be difficult for a person to jump overboard and not be noticed."
"Price went from a devout Christian minister and trusted financial adviser to a schemer who wiped out many of his clients' life savings," says the FBI account. Price "faked his own death to avoid taking responsibility for what he had done."
In a 22-page "confession to regulators" mailed by Price, he spilled out regrets, excuses, prayers and a list of his properties.
"My time has just run out.... I die and will be buried in shame and regret as I should," Price wrote.
His disappearance triggered a U.S. Coast Guard search in the Gulf of Mexico (costing an estimated $173,000) and an investigation by Key West police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Video recorded Price arriving at Key West International Airport the day he disappeared. He took a taxi to a post office and a dive shop near the ferry docks. He bought 20 pounds of dive weights and belt before walking to the ferry, Haley confirmed.
In a journal Price gave to Atlanta Magazine, Price claimed he intended to leap overboard to his death. Instead, he headed to Central America before returning to Florida.
Price pleaded guilty to three major fraud counts and was sentenced in Georgia federal court on Oct. 28, 2014, to a 30-year term. He is confined at a federal medium-security prison in Atlanta. His release is scheduled for 2040.
This story was originally published October 17, 2015 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Banker who tried to fake death off Key West marks his first year in federal prison, release year is 2040."