Fraud case expands against ex-fugitive banker

Federal prosecutors have broadened the indictment against a former fugitive South Georgia bank director who was arrested on New Year’s Eve after 18 months on the run.

The new “superseding” indictment upped the number of bank fraud counts against Aubrey Lee Price to 17, up from one originally. Price pleaded not guilty Thursday in a hearing in Statesboro.

Price, an investment adviser and preacher, is accused of embezzling more than $21 million from Montgomery Bank & Trust, a small bank in the tiny city of Ailey. Price and a group of investors from his advisory business had pumped $10 million into the ailing bank to save it in late 2010.