It is located at the Securities and Exchange Commission defendant Edwin Blunt Frost IV and his private lending company First Liberty Building and Loan It is said to be primarily based on a sophisticated $140 million Ponzi scheme. Civil Complaint It was filed Thursday in federal court in Atlanta.
Authorities in particular claim frost 67 target Republican activists and conservative Christian investors through a network of right-wing media outlets. Georgia’s financial company’s now-defunct website calls its ad “as you heard” Conservative media Includes shows from Eric Erikson, Hew Hewitt and Charlie Kirk. The first Liberty posted a note to its client on its website, stating that it suddenly shut down later last month and that its investment, payments and program was “stopped indefinitely.”
“The initial freedom is working with federal authorities as part of our efforts to achieve orderly lifting business,” the message states. “The original Liberty employee is not authorized to make further communication regarding ongoing circumstances. No one in the company will be able to answer calls or respond to email inquiries.”
Attempts to reach frost have failed.
According to the complaint, Frost and First Liberty raised at least $140 million from loan participation agreements and sales of promissory notes to at least 300 investors. The alleged scheme began in 2014 with fundraising through friends and family. They were first offered a loan participation agreement. A loan participation agreement is an agreement in which investors pool the money together and fund a single loan where each participant owns a percentage. They were later provided with a note, and essentially Authentic, of the promise that investors had lent the money to the company itself. Brandt reportedly told investors that the funds would be used to finance the short-term bridge at high interest rates.
Frost and First Liberty reportedly told investors that 100% of the proceeds from the loan agreement and promissory notes would be used to fund the bridge loans, and investors would benefit from the repayment of the bridge loans and the interest paid on them. The Friends and Family program offered returns of 14% to 18%, while the memo provided returns of 8% to 13% per year. The SEC alleges that Frost did not verbally take fees from investors’ funds.
The SEC complaint argues that almost all of these expressions are false. In 2021, First Liberty began operating as a Ponzi scheme, the complaint states, a feature of the Ponzi scheme, about 80% of the interest and payments raised from new investor funds to investors, or the Ponzi scheme.
“The high return on investment promise is a red flag that should make every potential investor think twice or three times before investing money,” said Justin C. Jeffries, director of the Executive Association of SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office. statement. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen this film before. The Budd actor invites investors with a seemingly overreachable promise of profits, but that doesn’t work.”
In 2024, the SEC claims Frost expanded its financial company reach by offering and selling what was made public on radio, company websites, podcasts and other programs. The company sold itself as a fundamental part of what it called the “Patriot Economy.”
However, the questionable scheme has already been clarified, according to the SEC. The first freedom was operated in the deficit every year from 2021 to May 30, 2025, and is said to have served as a Ponzi operation instead. Regulators have alleged that Frost even claimed that he misunderstood existing investors about the security of existing investments.
During the alleged scheme, the SEC accused Frost of living lavishly from investors’ assets.
Frost allegedly spent $230,000 on renting a villa in Kennebunkport, Maine, and $140,000 on jewelry. He also allegedly hooked a $20,800 Patek Philippe Watch with investor money and dumped $335,000 at a rare coin dealer. He is also said to have paid $2.4 million in investor funds on his credit card and earned $570,000 in political donations.
Nine days after committee staff interviewed Frost, the SEC retracted $100,000 from the company account, which includes investor funds, and wrote a check of $210,875 from a company account specializing in selling gold coins. The SEC has frozen frost assets.
Messages to Erickson, Hewitt and Kirk were not immediately returned.
In a message on the website, First Liberty wrote: “First Liberty hopes to provide additional information and updates in the near future regarding the status of the company’s efforts to achieve a neat and orderly rewind of the business.”
