By Nick Valencia, CNN
Atlanta (CNN) — A Georgia banker who went missing last month is being sought by federal authorities for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from a south Georgia bank.
Aubrey “Lee” Price, 46, is charged with wire fraud, and is suspected of defrauding more than 100 investors of at least $17 million dollars over the course of two years, a criminal complaint from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, said.
In late 2010, Price was celebrated by his peers and written up in newspaper articles after a company he controlled bought a controlling portion of the troubled Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey, Georgia. He was supposed to invest the bank’s capital. Instead, prosecutors say Price used a New York-based “clearing firm” — a dummy company set up to hide money — to coverup fraudulent wire transfers and investments.
Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey — about 170 miles southeast of Atlanta — had been in operation for nearly 90 years when it was closed Friday by the state of Georgia, with the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation named as receiver. The FDIC said Ameris Bank in Moultrie, Georgia, would take over operations of Montgomery’s accounts and its two branches.
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