NEWNAN, Ga. — A federal judge is allowing the receiver put in place to handle assets of Newnan-based First Liberty Building & Loan to move forward with auctioning off items and property.
In September, the receiver appointed to manage the company’s assets asked permission to auction off the items to pay investors back the funds they put into the company.
The conservative-leaning investment firm, owned and operated by Edwin Brant Frost IV, has been under federal and state investigation on allegations of using investor funds on personal luxury and making donations to Republican political causes.
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According to a legal filing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Frost allegedly spent lavishly with investors’ money, with some of the money going toward:
- $570,000 going to political donations
- $140,000 in jewelry
- A $20,000 Patek Phillippe watch
- $335,000 to a rare coin dealer
Frost is accused of transferring $5 million to himself and members of his family.
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In the wake of the investigation and allegations, Georgia Republican Party leaders returned funds donated by the company.
Federal investigators have called the allegations a $140 million Ponzi scheme. State officials said the alleged scheme was at the center of the largest fraud investigation in the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office history.
Among the assets to be auctioned is a 2006 Aston Martin DB5, a 2011 LNDR Range Rover Sport, a 2011 Range Rover Sport, a 2017 LNDR Range Rover, a 2013 Nissan Rogue, and the office building in downtown Newnan that Frost worked out of.
“By this Motion, the Receiver requests authority to sell the Aston Martin, the Additional Vehicles, the Newnan Office, and Other Property via public auction,” receiver Greg Hays said in his motion to the court in September.
The lending company abruptly shut down in July amid a federal investigation into misappropriated funds. Channel 2’s Richard Elliot was at First Liberty when Frost gave his keys to the business to Hays in the summer.
While a judge approved the request to begin auctioning assets to pay back investors, some of those same borrowers who used First Liberty’s loan services are suing to prevent their property from being included in the auction.
Court records show some borrowers who were granted a loan by First Liberty are worried the property they had invested in could be grabbed up and sold off to recoup money for investors.
The borrowers filed in court to both protect the land they’d purchased through the loan and are working to stop having payments requested or collected for the more than $1 million loan due to the money from it never materializing.
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