A Georgia pastor-turned-financial advisor is speaking for the first time about his life on the run for defrauding investors, and even faking his own death. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
Aubrey Lee Price was a man of God. A family man and a notorious conman who spent 18 months running from the law. Now, he is speaking out for the first time in a jailhouse interview.
He said, “I realize I’ve done wrong. I admit to that wrong and I accept my penalties. Accept my punishment. I'm going to let God take me through the process of changing my life, my heart and giving me a new start.”
Price's new start might have to wait. He's already pleaded guilty to ripping off clients as an investment advisor for millions of dollars and was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. His story, if all true, sounds like something from a Hollywood movie down to his dramatic change in appearance.
He said, “I had six false identities. I had foreign identities. I had local identities. I used a number of different aliases. I was known to some people as ‘Diesel.’”
Price was caught on security cameras when he was last seen, boarding a ferry in Key West, Florida in June of 2012. He made it appear as though he had jumped to his death and his wife even had him declared dead. However, he actually had faked the suicide. Abandoning his wife and four children and headed to South America where he claims he helped run a friend's cocaine operation.
“There's 30-40 workers. They're stuffing little bags full of white powder,” he said.
But the FBI wasn't buying it. They put Price on their most wanted list, offering a reward of $20,000. He says that reward was insulting, saying, “I was disappointed it was only $20,000, you know? Come on, put some money out there!”
Eventually, he snuck back into the U.S.
Charles Bethea, @Charlesbethea, a writer-at-large for Atlanta magazine and contributor to Esquire conducted the 10 hour audio-only interview with Price behind bars.
He said Price called his family right after his arrest.
Bethea told INSIDE EDITION, “They couldn't believe it. They were watching television but didn't have the news on, so, they weren't even aware what had happened and they hear the voice of a man who they had helped declare dead earlier that year. They thought he was dead. They really thought he was gone."
Ironically, the man who faked his own death now claims he really did consider suicide while he was on the run.
Price said, “So, here I am, this inglorious fugitive now, and every day I wake up with the idea that the glorious departed from my life. I'm all alone, I'm sad, I'm depressed, I'm despondent, I've tried to commit suicide probably 50 times.”
