Camden man gets 14 months for MBNA fraud Former employee must return $52,000

BANGOR – Eric Price, 25, of Camden was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $52,000 in restitution to his former employer, credit card giant MBNA, during a hearing Friday at U.S. District Court in Bangor.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal presided.

Price was ordered to complete five years of supervised release after prison. He will self-report to a federal prison on Feb. 28 and remains free on bond until that time.

In October 2001, Price pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud for offenses that allegedly occurred from Oct. 31, 2000, to March 16, 2001, according to a court document.

Technically, the exact amount of restitution is $52,791.03.

A former car salesman in Topsham, Price used several schemes to obtain MBNA funds, according to court papers. In one instance, he submitted an application for a credit card account to MBNA New England using a false Social Security number. Price “exceeded his authority as an employee of MBNA by approving this application and establishing the credit card account,” states one court document. Price then charged $25,911.77 to the account.

Price also made false entries into MBNA records indicating he had made a total of $3,000 in payments on his account. After making one false entry, he charged another $2,593.06 to the account, exceeding the account limit by $1,593.06. In at least three instances, he charged several thousand dollars to credit card accounts of customers with names similar to his own. In two instances, he obtained a replacement credit card for accounts that were not his, then charged $12,398.39 to one credit card and $6,493.41 to the other. All the charges were made “without the knowledge or permission of the owners of the accounts,” a court document states.