Feds seek 14-year sentence for First Liberty leader as supporters urge leniency

Brant Frost IV’s supporters have called him a man of dignity and professionalism, honest, dependable and humble.

He has also been accused by federal prosecutors of operating a nine-figure Ponzi scheme at the company he founded, First Liberty Building & Loan, that was “deliberate and deeply deceptive” and “devastated the lives of many, including seniors and retirees.”

Ahead of Frost’s Monday sentencing after his guilty plea to wire fraud, a flood of family members and supporters submitted about 80 letters to the court in a bid for leniency.

His attorneys, in a filing, told U.S. District Chief Judge Leigh Martin May that Frost “will appear before this Court for sentencing, a 69-year-old man, broken, chastened and humbled. He agonized for the people he hurt even before he wept his way through each and every Victim Impact Statement.”

They wrote in a sentencing memorandum to the court that Frost “is tortured every day by the pain he caused, and he is profoundly remorseful for violating the law and abusing the trust that clients, colleagues and customers placed in him. He accepts full responsibility for his conduct. Brant knows he should have done things differently.”

U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg submitted his own document asking for Frost to be sentenced to 14 years in prison, to “appropriately reflect the pervasiveness of Frost’s Ponzi scheme, which caused over $76 million in loss to over 300 victims” and deter other “potential fraudsters.”

Federal regulators last year accused First Liberty of operating a $140 million Ponzi scheme that targeted conservative and faith-based investors across Georgia and beyond.

Frost’s attorneys asked for five years, plus restitution and supervised release. That, they argued, “would allow Brant to return home while he is still physically and intellectually capable of working in aid of restitution.”

When First Liberty closed, Frost started selling generators in hopes of earning money to support his family and repay investors, the filing said.

Where were investor funds diverted?

Newnan-based First Liberty and the Frost family were deeply embedded in Republican politics in Georgia and across the South. The company framed its investments as part of a “patriot economy.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously identified roughly $1.4 million in political contributions tied to Frost, his relatives and affiliated businesses. Federal regulators allege at least $570,000 in investor money was used for political donations.

Frost admitted to a single count of felony wire fraud tied to the misuse of investor funds. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

During the May plea hearing, Frost acknowledged under oath that he knowingly participated in a scheme that used money from new investors to repay earlier investors while concealing the company’s mounting financial problems.

First Liberty abruptly shut down operations in June 2025. Days later, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company and Frost, alleging the lender used new investor money to cover obligations to earlier investors, while promising big returns.

Federal officials have alleged Frost diverted millions of dollars for personal expenses, including luxury purchases, political donations, credit card bills and vacation-home expenses.

The memo submitted to the court by Frost’s attorneys ahead of his sentencing proposes a narrative for what led Frost to commit such a large-scale fraud.

“His First Liberty investment program was not a sham or a con; it ran legally and successfully for many years, and it helped scores of community businesspeople fulfill their dreams,” Frost’s attorneys’ memo said. “When economic events turned against Brant, and he feared that he would miss interest payments to investors, he made terrible decisions in the hope that his business would recover without anyone getting hurt. His was a poor, but quintessentially human reaction to a desperate financial situation.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office memo casts the downturn in a different light.

“Frost portrayed himself to investors as an ethical, faith-based businessman dedicated to helping small businesses and individuals. But the callousness by which he swindled individuals out of their money tells a different story,” the U.S. Attorney’s memo said. “Faced with defaults and financial shortfalls, Frost did not disclose the truth or attempt to restructure First Liberty honestly. Instead, he chose deception, concealment, and self-enrichment.”

What did First Liberty offer?

First Liberty was not a federally insured bank. Instead, the company sold investment products known as “First Liberty Notes,” which promised annual returns as high as 13% and were marketed primarily to accredited investors.

These were touted as ways for investors to buy pieces of short-term and bridge loans offered to First Liberty’s business borrowers, and they offered high interest rates in return.

The SEC said First Liberty executives told investors that very few of these loans had defaulted and that they would be repaid by borrowers through Small Business Administration or other commercial loans.

But while some investors’ funds were used to make bridge loans, the SEC said in its complaint, most of the loans ultimately defaulted and ceased making interest payments.