Marshal: Banker homeless before arrest

Associated Press

BRUNSWICK, Ga.

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.

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.

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.