Former Director of Failed Georgia Bank May Be on the Run

A former director of a failed Georgia bank may be on the lam.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is searching for Aubrey Lee Price after charging him of embezzling about $17 million from Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey, Ga. Lee has been missing since June 16, when he was seen boarding a ferry in Key West, Fla., the attorney's office said in a press release.

Montgomery Bank failed Friday; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold its deposits and a fraction of its assets to Ameris Bank in Moultrie, Ga.

Price became a director of Montgomery Bank after PFG, a company he controlled, bought a controlling portion of the bank's stock in December 2010, the complaint said.

"In early 2011, Price took on the responsibility of investing the bank's capital," the attorney's office claimed. "Price opened brokerage accounts that cleared through a securities clearing and custodial firm in New York and told the bank's management that he would invest the bank's capital in Treasury securities. … Instead of investing the money as promised, Price fraudulently wired the bank's funds to accounts that he personally controlled at other financial institutions."

The Securities and Exchange Commission also has Price is its sights. The agency obtained a court order last week freezing the assets of PFG, an investment fund tied to Lee. The SEC claimed in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that PFG orchestrated a $40 million investment fraud dating back to 2008.

"Price purported to invest fund assets in traditional marketable securities, but he also made illiquid investments in South America real estate and a troubled south Georgia bank," the SEC complaint stated. "In order to conceal mounting losses of investor funds, Price created bogus account statements with false account balances and returns that were provided to investors and bank regulators."

The attorney's office said there is a possibility that Price may be in Venezuela or Guatemala. He was in Venezuela in early June, the office's press release said.

The SEC's complaint also stated that Price had sent a letter to some individuals last month titled "Confidential Confession For Regulators — PFG LLC and PFGBI LLC Summary," where he allegedly admitted that he "falsified statements with false returns" to conceal $20 million to $23 million in investor losses.

A judge has already granted the SEC's request for a temporary restraining order and entered an asset freeze for the benefit of investors against Price, PFG, and his affiliated entities. A court hearing was set for Friday to address the agency's motion for a preliminary injunction.