'The Con' has finally returned for Season 2 and we can't wait to dive into more shams and charlatans like an imposter pastor. Where is Aubrey Lee Price now?
In the Bible, Proverbs 13:5 states, "The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves." In other words, if you're lying then it pours out of every fiber of your being and it cannot be hidden.
What does God do to liars? Once again, we turn to Proverbs: "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish."
Yikes, death seems like a bit much, but it drives home the point that God is not a fan of falsehoods.
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That's why it's so utterly shocking that Season 2, Episode 1 of The Con is devoted entirely to an imposter pastor — an impastor, if you will. Aubrey Lee Price was a cunning clergyman turned investment adviser who stole millions from clients, then disappeared without a trace. Where is Aubrey Lee Price now? Here's what we know.
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Where is Aubrey Lee Price now?
According to The Atlantic, on Oct. 28, 2014, Aubrey Lee Price received a 30-year prison sentence for orchestrating a "Ponzi scheme that evoked comparisons to the one masterminded by Bernie Madoff." Beyond his prison sentence, Price will also have to pay restitution to his victims to the tune of roughly $46 million.
How did a man who so fervently believed in God become the kind of person who would cheat people out of their life savings?
A few weeks after Price was arrested in June 2012, The Atlantic's Charles Bethea wrote Price a letter, which led to an invitation to speak with him in jail. During the course of this conversation, Price laid out a story that truly belongs on the big screen. At the time, that's what Price was hoping for because he owes a lot of money to a lot of people.
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Price's interest in the church began in 1987 when he attended "Brewton-Parker, a Baptist college in Mount Vernon, Ga., where he met his wife, Rebekah, and graduated in 1990 with a bachelor’s in ministry." He would later obtain his master's from Columbia International University.
However, while Price loved being a pastor, there was very little money in service to the Lord. Having a wife and two children meant things were tight more often than not. That's why in 2000, he turned to the world of investment advising while still doing some light preaching.
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Price's leap from finance to fraud is messy and complicated. The Con will undoubtedly do a deep dive so tuning in is a must. What really interests us here is how Price chose to extricate himself from the web of lies he concocted. If you had "fake his own death" on your BINGO card, then it's time to yell BINGO.
How did Aubrey Lee Price fake his own death?
Aubrey Lee Price disappeared on June 16, 2012. The night before, he watched Braveheart with his son Nathan and talked about "church, the ministry, and where [Nathan] was headed in life."
The following morning, Price's last words to his son were, "Never give up. Never give up." His daughter Hannah remembers waking up that morning to find her father praying over her, which wasn't unusual for him considering his past.
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A statement released by the FBI disclosed that "Price sent acquaintances 'suicide letters' in which he admitted he had defrauded MB&T Bank and Price’s individual investors, and that he planned to kill himself by throwing himself off a high-speed ferry boat after it left Key West, Fla. As a result of the suicide claim, the United States Coast Guard searched to no avail for Price’s body." Price mailed these letters right before disappearing.
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A little over a year later, in December 2013, Price was pulled over in Brunswick, Ga. during a routine traffic stop where he "presented a false identification." Nine months later, his October 2014 trial led to the 30-year prison sentence and a year after that, his restitution hearing ended with Price agreeing to "pay tens of millions in restitution for bank and investor money that he lost, despite having convinced the court to appoint him a lawyer because he had no money to hire one," per Fox News.
For more on Aubrey Lee Price, the impastor, tune into The Con at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
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