Federal authorities have released new surveillance photos from a Key West, Fla., airport and ferry terminal showing a missing South Georgia bank director on the day of his disappearance.
Aubrey Lee Price, 46, disappeared June 16 and was last seen at the ferry terminal where it is believed he boarded a vessel bound for Fort Myers. Price told some people he planned to jump to his death from a ferry, according to a federal complaint.
Price faces a federal wire fraud charge in New York and has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Savannah on charges of bank fraud.
He is accused of embezzling up to $21 million from the failed Montgomery Bank & Trust, where he became a board member after leading a group that invested millions of dollars in an effort to turn around the struggling bank.
In a separate civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Price is accused of defrauding more than 100 investors in various investment entities under his control.
In a purported confessional note bearing his name, Price admits to hiding investment losses but says he had tried in vain to recoup them.
"I realize that time is up and that there is no way I can work my way out of the mess that I have created," the letter said.
Price is shown with luggage at the Key West airport on June 16, the day of his disappearance. He is believed to have arrived on the island around 12:30 p.m., before visiting a dive shop and later arriving at the ferry terminal. In photos from the airport, Price is shown wearing a maroon cap, but images taking from the ferry terminal show him in a white cap.
Though authorities have not ruled out suicide, a senior FBI special agent told the AJC this week that he believes the story to be a ruse.
Doug Leff, assistant special agent in charge with the FBI in New York, said this week evidence casts doubt on Price's purported suicide note and that authorities have enlisted counterparts in South America and with Interpol to try to find Price.
Price is known to travel frequently to Guatemala and Venezuela, where he is said to own property. Price is believed to have owned as many as five boats, several of them capable of a voyage to another country.
Authorities hope people with information about Aubrey Lee Price's whereabouts will call the FBI's New York office at 212-384-1000.
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