On New Year’s Eve three years ago, Aubrey Lee Price was hailed as the savior of a troubled small-town bank.
Two years later, on yet another New Year’s Eve, a court declared him dead. By then, his bank had failed. He lost perhaps $25 million of his investors’ money, including, apparently, his parents’. And his disappearance the previous June set off an international manhunt and made national headlines.
This New Year’s Eve, the indicted banker was found — alive — in an unlikely traffic stop in coastal Georgia. His dinged-up truck held a propane tank, a sleeping bag and fake IDs. Days later, in another twist, authorities in Florida said Price, who was once a minister, is suspected of growing more than 200 marijuana plants.
It’s a far fall for the 47-year-old Price, and those three New Year’s eves are like chapters in a bizarre financial thriller that seems to have no end.
Still to be discovered is where he spent the last 18 months and how much of the missing millions will ever be returned to battered investors.
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