On Wednesday, the Georgia State Ethics Commission filed a complaint against a PAC tied to First Liberty Building & Loan, an alleged Ponzi scheme led by prominent Georgia Republican Edwin Brant Frost IV.
The executive director of the Georgia Ethics Commission, George Emadi, wrote in a Wednesday statement that “the ethics complaint filed today represent our initial charges against the Georgia Republican Assembly PAC.”
“Our investigation remains ongoing and additional charges may be coming at a future date, but we intend to aggressively pursue all violations of Georgia law committed by the GRA which illegally influenced elections in 2022 and 2024,” he added.
First Liberty and Loan was charged by the federal Security and Exchange Commission on July 10 for operating as a Ponzi scheme since 2021, using new investor money to pay off old investors and enrich Frost. The Alabama Securities Commission is also investigating the company.
The website of the possible Ponzi scheme now states it “has ceased all business operations” and is “cooperating with federal authorities.”
According to reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Frost frequently targeted his sales pitch at conservative audiences. While First Liberty Business & Loan was still operating, Frost and the allegedly fraudulent company he ran often donated significant sums to the campaigns of conservative candidates, including several Alabama Republicans like state Auditor Andrew Sorrell.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen issued a statement in late July asking individuals who had received “contributions involved with the alleged Georgia investment fraud scheme” to return them to the court-appointed receiver. In addition to Sorrell, whose PAC received tens of thousands after he says he fell victim to Frost’s “Madoff-like Ponzi scheme,” prominent state politicians like Barry Moore and Mo Brooks also received money from the Frost family, APR reported.
The Georgia Republican Assembly PAC, organized by Brant Frost IV’s son, Brant Frost V, was accused by the State Ethics Committee of “failing to register as an independent committee prior to accepting contributions or making independent expenditures for the purpose of affecting the outcome of an election.” Specifically, the complaint alleges the PAC failed to report 36 such expenditures totaling over $220,000.
The ads funded by these unreported expenditures include an attack on Georgia state Representative Dale Washburn’s support for letting “special immigrants” qualify for in-state tuition, a “Fight the Fake News: Protect the Children” school board campaign ad, and others, per the filed complaint.
While the PAC has received contributions from many people since first being registered as a political action committee in 2022, the Frost family donated tens of thousands of dollars, according to public records.
The son, Brant Frost V, was also the original organizer of the PAC in 2017. In an email to the Georgia Recorder, the president of the Georgia Republican Assembly—the organization the PAC took its name from—explained that “about ten years ago, the then-GRA Board had granted Brant Frost V a license to use the name.”
The president also stated that “only the Frost family had control and oversight of the PAC” and said it was already in the process of being shut down following the Frosts’ resignation from the Georgia Republican Assembly.
According to the expenditures that were properly filed with the Georgia Ethics Commission and logged in the Georgia Campaign Finance System, the PAC does not seem to have made any payments to companies based in Alabama.
