Nathaniel A. Price of Arkadelphia said it feels that a weight has been lifted off him.
Last month the Chapter 7 trustee for the bankrupt Alliance Insurance Group of Arkadelphia Inc. dismissed its suit against Price.
Back in 2020, the trustee, M. Randy Rice of Little Rock, sued Price, the former vice president of the insurance agency, and Treasurer and CFO Pamela G. Frazier of Arkadelphia, seeking to recover $7.3 million. Alliance was owned by convicted fraudster Berry Bishop, who is Price’s father-in-law.
The suit in bankruptcy court made clear that Bishop acted alone in the loan fraud that ruined his agency, but says his crimes were possible only because Alliance’s management team failed to provide oversight to the agency.
But in a filing last month, Rice said that based “on the information gleaned in discovery, the Trustee has determined that Defendant Price should be dismissed,” from the proceeding.
Price was thrilled.
“We went through months of depositions and discovery,” Price told Whispers, and the trustee and his attorneys “realized that there was nothing there … that tied me to any wrongful acts.”
Price said he didn’t even know that he was an officer of the corporation until after the problems surfaced.
Insuring the Future
Price said he plans on moving forward and growing his own insurance agency, Price & Co. of Arkadelphia, which handles all lines of insurance.
That independent firm was created after the insurance licenses of Alliance and Bishop were suspended in April 2018 and the Arkansas Insurance Department insisted that Price and other agents continue to serve Alliance clients.
“Obviously, the past three years have been very challenging, professionally,” Price said. “Competitors have definitely used [the trustee’s allegations] against me.”
But he said Price & Co. has been strong and also weathered COVID-19. “It’s really exciting to see what Price & Co. can do now with the weight lifted off,” Price said.
Rice and the attorney that filed the case, Gregory Bevel of the Rochelle McCullough law firm of Dallas, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
The trustee’s lawsuit against Frazier remains in place. She is representing herself in the proceeding and has denied wrongdoing in her court filing.
Meanwhile, Bishop, 70, is serving a five-year sentence in federal prison for bank fraud and is scheduled to be sprung on April 11, 2024.
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