NEWNAN, Ga. — The man behind First Liberty Building & Loan, once a fixture in Georgia conservative politics, will spend the next 15 years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that drained the savings of roughly 300 investors.
U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May handed down the sentence Monday to Edwin Brant Frost IV, 69, in a federal courtroom in Newnan, close to where the now-closed lender operated. The term is one year longer than the 14 years prosecutors had sought under the plea deal. Frost pleaded guilty and was convicted of wire fraud in May.
The judge also ordered him to repay $76,454,374.39 in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release once he is out. He has 30 days to turn himself in.
Federal prosecutors say First Liberty was falling short of what it owed by 2021, and Frost began lying to investors about the loans. Investors, many of them putting in retirement money, were promised yearly returns of 8% to 18% on what they were told were short-term bridge loans to small businesses waiting on Small Business Administration financing. Investigators found the money was not used as promised, and most of those loans eventually went bad.
Prosecutors also say Frost took millions for himself. In their telling, investor cash covered a rented summer place in Maine, jewelry and watches, more than $2 million in credit card debt and in excess of $570,000 in political giving.
Victims spent about two hours describing their losses, and many said their plans to retire were gone. Frost told the court he took full responsibility. His lawyer asked for five years, citing his age, but May said a shorter term would not match how serious the crime was and said she did not accept that he never meant to hurt anyone.
May told victims she could not promise their money would be recovered. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta brought the case.
Section: More Atlanta GA crime news
Filed under: Atlanta GA Crime News
