Georgia Republican’s Ponzi scheme defrauded people of $140m, say officials | Georgia

An eminent republican of Georgia led a Ponzi program which has frauded 300 investors of at least $ 140 million, allegedly allegedly responsible for federal officials.

The civil trial of the American Commission on Securities and Exchange (SEC) said that First Liberty Building and Loan, controlled by Brant Frost IV, lied to investors about its high interest loan activities for businesses. Instead, the investigators said it has collected more money to reimburse previous investors.

Frost would have taken more than $ 19 million in investor funds for himself, his family and his affiliated companies, even though the company was going to go bankrupt, spending $ 160,000 in jewelry and $ 335,000 with a rare parts dealer. Frost would also have spent $ 320,000 to rent a holiday home over several years in Kennebunkport, in Maine, the city where the family of the late President George HW Bush spent summers.

The SEC said that Frost continued to write checks even after the committee began its investigation.

First Liberty said in June that she would stop making loans and paying interest and an investor director in these loans. The company said that it did not answer phone calls or emails.

First Liberty did not respond to an email asking for comments, and no one was present at his office Thursday evening in Newnan, a suburb in southwest of Atlanta. A lawyer who acts as a registered company of the company for business purposes declared earlier that he had no information.

The collapse has shook the religious and political networks whose company attracted investors. He could also have ramifications in the Republican State policy, reducing the financing of far -right candidates that Frost and his family favored. Investigators said FROST had spent $ 570,000 from political contributions in political contributions.

The SEC said that the company had only $ 2.67 million in cash on May 30, although regulators are also looking to recover money from Frost and associated companies. With 300 investors out of $ 140 million, this means that the average investor was made in nearly $ 500,000.

FIRST Liberty said it had granted loans to businesses that needed money pending more conventional loans from the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). He billed high interest rates – 18% on certain loans, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press. First Liberty has promised investors equally high rate of return – 16% out of 18% of loans.

In recent months, the company has strongly announced radio conservatives promising “Wall Street yields for investors on the main street”.

“The promise of a high rate of return on an investment is a red flag that should make you think about all potential investors twice or even three times before investing their money,” Justin C Jeffries, Associate Director of the DRI for the Atlanta Bureau, said in a press release.

The company declared that it “cooperates with the federal authorities in the context of an effort to carry out an ordered liquidation of the company”. The SEC said that FROST and its companies had accepted the measures to apply the law of the dry “with monetary appeals to be determined by the court on a later date”.

Although the SEC claims that there were loans to businesses, up to 90% of these companies were lacking. By 2021, the company presented itself as a Ponzi program, according to the complaint, even if the frost has withdrawn growing sums of money.

The company is the subject of an investigation by the Secretary of State for Georgia for possible violations of the securities law, said Robert Sinners, spokesperson for the office.

A document in 2023 obtained by the AP is entitled as a “order to order”, and the sinners said that anyone publishing order tickets is supposed to be registered with managers of Georgia Securities.

The sinners have encouraged any victim to contact the state securities division.

Federal prosecutors refused to comment if they are considering criminal charges. Sometimes a civilian CIA and a federal criminal affair are deposited on investment fraud.

Frost has been an important player in Georgia’s policy since 1988, when he has coordinated the presidential republican candidacy of the Pat Robertson Televangelist in the state. His son, Brant Frost V, is president of the Corté de Coweta Republican Party, where the company is based – and is a former second vice -president of the State Republican Party. The Katie Frost daughter is a republican president of the third district of the Congress, which includes the county of Coweta and other regions southwest of Atlanta.

During the Republican State Convention in June, Katie chaired a appointment committee which recommended that the delegates re -elected the President of the State Party Josh McKoon. The delegates followed this recommendation, rejecting a number of insurgent candidates.