Jay McMaster thought he was doing the responsible thing.
At 93, the retiree spent a lifetime building a nest egg — starting as a boy shining shoes for 35 cents an hour at Woolworth’s, then saving carefully through decades of work in the food service industry.
When his sister’s health began to fail, McMaster wanted to help cover her care. He invested a total of $1.3 million with First Liberty Building & Loan after hearing about the politically connected, Newman-based lender on conservative radio.
It’s gone now, he says, wiped out in what federal regulators say was a $140 million Ponzi scheme. Now McMaster is lending his story to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s ongoing probe into the fallout.
“I can understand why some of the victims don’t want to be seen. That’s OK,” he said at a victims’ roundtable Raffensperger convened Monday. “But let your voice be heard.”
In a suddenly crowded Republican race for governor, Raffensperger is leaning into his office’s ongoing probe into First Liberty — while pushing back against a legislative effort that could strip his office of the authority to keep it going.
Some of the dozen or so attendees were openly angry as they pressed for ways to claw back what they lost. Others said they wanted the firm’s father-and-son leaders, Brant Frost IV and Brant Frost V, to pay.
A federal civil investigation into First Liberty is being led by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The only individual named is the elder Frost. Neither man has been charged with any crime, and Frost IV has issued a public apology and urged investors to cooperate with federal officials.
“We are working hard to get your money back,” Raffensperger said. “No matter how much political hot water it gets me into, we are proceeding full steam ahead.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
‘Elites’
Raffensperger is far from the only candidate seizing on corruption as a campaign theme.
Attorney General Chris Carr circulated a three-page memo on Monday, urging Georgians to report potential corruption violations by public officers they may be “reluctant to address.”
Carr also outlined what he called the toughest anti-corruption crackdown in the nation, echoing attack ads accusing Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the GOP front-runner, of self-dealing to boost his family’s company.
“Public officers cannot put their personal interests first and cannot demand or request personal benefit as a condition to performing their public duties,” Carr’s memo read.
Jones has painted those claims as desperate moves by a flailing campaign.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is channeling the same playbook that helped him win the seat in 2021 by making anti-corruption a focus of his reelection campaign. He’s tying his GOP challengers to President Donald Trump, who he says is dedicated to protecting the “ultra-rich.”
“They are the elites they pretend to hate,” Ossoff said at a weekend rally.
But Raffensperger’s approach cuts a different direction in a race transformed last week by the entry of Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care entrepreneur who has pledged to spend at least $50 million to compete for the party’s MAGA base.
As he tries to carve out support among mainstream Republicans, Raffensperger has highlighted his office’s growing probe into First Liberty and his recent appointment of a veteran investigator, Jason Doss, to lead the inquiry.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
The probe’s future is uncertain. Powerful Georgia House Republicans back legislation that would strip Raffensperger’s office of its authority over securities and commodities regulation and transfer it to the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance.
The measure is now pending in the House Rules Committee, which sets the chamber’s legislative agenda.
House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, one of the bill’s sponsors, has said the proposal has nothing to do with the probe and everything to do with government efficiency. He said it makes sense to shift responsibilities to an agency that already regulates other financial entities.
Noula Zaharis, the state’s assistant commissioner of securities, who works for Raffensperger, warned that such a split would trigger a host of legal and logistical problems — and could cost taxpayers another $1 million to sort out the separation.
“This is not government efficiency,” she wrote in a letter to legislators.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
‘God’s money’
The debate is unfolding as the court-appointed receiver works to untangle First Liberty’s wreckage.
S. Gregory Hays said in a Jan. 30 order he clawed back about $3.6 million, but he has warned much of the money may never be recovered as he continues tracing the flow of funds in a database that includes roughly 48,000 separate transactions.
More than $300,000 in charitable or political contributions have been returned, but that’s a fraction of nearly $1.4 million in campaign donations tied to the Frost family that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified.
What comes next is still uncertain. Frost IV has apologized and urged victims to cooperate with the receiver’s efforts. His son, Frost V, is not named in the SEC complaint but is facing scrutiny from state ethics officials and Raffensperger’s office.
Frost V has declined repeated requests for comment, including after he was elected to a Coweta County GOP post in August. Records show he was recently licensed as an insurance agent and launched a new firm under the name “E.B. Frost.”
Credit: Screenshot
Credit: Screenshot
At the roundtable, some investors said they want the Frosts criminally prosecuted. Others said restitution for their families mattered most — even if they didn’t live to see it.
Thomas Todd, a 77-year-old retired electrical worker from Walton County, said he trusted his instincts and “gift of discernment” when he invested $750,000 with First Liberty. In fact, he said he was preparing to write another six-figure check when the company collapsed.
“I pray for them every day — every morning. They need those prayers,” he said of the Frosts. “But they also need to pay for what they did.”
Todd said he harbors no resentment toward First Liberty’s leaders. But he wants it to be known that he and his wife had planned to direct profits from their investments to churches and other religious charities.
“They didn’t steal from me,” he said. “They stole God’s money.”
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