A Ponzi Scheme Built on Faith and Politics
On April 1, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that Bankers Life Advisory Services and Bankers Life Securities had agreed to pay $6.7 million to 46 victims of the First Liberty Building & Loan collapse—a partial reckoning for what the Securities and Exchange Commission has called a $140 million Ponzi scheme that preyed on conservative Christians and Republican donors across Georgia and beyond.
The settlement makes roughly one-third of the identified victims whole. But for the remaining 250-plus investors—many of them elderly retirees who poured their life savings into what they believed was a patriotic, faith-aligned investment—the road to recovery remains long and uncertain. A court-appointed receiver is still cataloging assets, and criminal referrals are now landing on prosecutors’ desks.
The case is a textbook example of affinity fraud: a scheme that weaponizes shared identity—in this case, conservative politics and evangelical Christianity—to build trust and suppress due diligence. The evidence trail, spanning SEC filings, state regulatory actions, and federal court records, reveals how one Georgia family exploited the infrastructure of the American right to siphon millions from the people who trusted them most.
How the Scheme Worked
First Liberty Building & Loan, based in Newnan, Georgia, was founded by Edwin Brant Frost IV. According to the SEC’s July 2025 complaint, the company offered investors loan participation agreements and promissory notes, promising annual returns of 8 to 18 percent. Frost told investors their money would finance short-term bridge loans—a plausible-sounding pitch that attracted an initial circle of friends and family beginning in 2014.
The SEC alleges that by 2021, approximately 80 percent of payments to existing investors came from new investor funds—the defining hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. That same year, filings indicate, Frost began aggressively expanding his investor base beyond personal networks, advertising on conservative radio shows, podcasts, and websites to reach a broader audience of right-leaning investors.
The strategy worked. By the time First Liberty abruptly ceased operations on June 27, 2025, roughly 300 investors had entrusted the firm with at least $140 million, according to SEC filings. Many were elderly. As Raffensperger noted in his April 1 announcement, the victims were predominantly seniors in their seventies, eighties, and nineties who had “virtually lost everything.”
James McMaster, a 93-year-old investor who put $1.3 million into First Liberty, told CBS Atlanta that he learned of the scheme’s collapse while sitting in a doctor’s office.
Where the Money Went
The SEC’s complaint paints a detailed picture of how Frost allegedly spent investor funds on personal luxuries:
- $2.4 million in personal credit card payments
- $335,000 to a rare coin dealer
- $230,000 to rent a vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine
- $140,000 in jewelry purchases
- $20,800 for a Patek Philippe watch
But the most politically significant expenditure was an estimated $570,000 in political donations that the SEC alleges came from investor funds. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of campaign finance records, the Frost family and their companies contributed approximately $1.4 million to political causes overall—with nearly 83 percent of that total flowing after 2021, precisely when the SEC says the Ponzi scheme began operating at full scale.
The donations spread across 38 states and reached at least 215 candidates and committees. Major recipients included:
- The Georgia Republican Assembly PAC: over $162,000
- The Georgia Republican Party: over $50,000
- Alabama State Auditor Justin Andrew Sorrell: $55,000 (the largest individual recipient)
- West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey’s committee: $35,000
- Governor Brian Kemp: $13,800
- Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: $8,417
Donations also flowed to national figures including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. At the state level, the Frosts supported ultraconservative Georgia candidates such as State Senator Colton Moore—who was ousted from the Senate GOP caucus—and Kandiss Taylor, who ran for governor in 2022.
The Recruiter: A Republican Party Leader Turned Financial Advisor
The $6.7 million settlement specifically addressed the clients of one man: Timothy Nathaniel Darnell, a financial advisor at Bankers Life who simultaneously served as president of the Georgia Republican Assembly, a far-right faction that positioned itself as a gatekeeper against Republican candidates it deemed insufficiently conservative.
According to state regulators, Darnell directed at least 45 clients to invest in First Liberty between 2020 and 2025—without authorization from Bankers Life. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office accused Darnell of leveraging religion and shared political views to recruit clients and steer them toward First Liberty investments. State records indicate he collected nearly $250,000 in commissions from those referrals.
In March 2026, Raffensperger’s office imposed a $500,000 fine on Darnell, barred him from acting as an agent or investment advisor in Georgia, and referred the case to the Cobb County district attorney’s office for potential criminal prosecution. Darnell, through his attorney Doug Gilfillan, has denied the allegations.
A Pattern Bigger Than One Scheme
The First Liberty collapse is not an isolated case. It fits a well-documented pattern of affinity fraud targeting politically engaged conservatives—a pattern that regulatory agencies and watchdog organizations have flagged with increasing urgency.
In April 2024, the Campaign Legal Center filed FEC complaints against two PACs—”Patriots for American Leadership” and “Campaign for a Conservative Majority”—that allegedly used robocalls featuring former President Trump’s voice to defraud thousands of small donors. Records indicate that Patriots for American Leadership raised nearly $1.4 million, mostly from donors giving less than $200, while making no contributions to any federal candidates or committees.
The Brennan Center for Justice has documented how scam PACs exploit the loose regulatory framework around political fundraising to siphon money from well-meaning donors. Two scam PAC operators were recently sentenced to 10- and 7-year federal prison terms, respectively, for raising millions under false pretenses.
What distinguishes the First Liberty case is its scale and its integration into legitimate political infrastructure. This was not a fly-by-night robocall operation. Frost and his associates embedded themselves in the institutional machinery of Georgia Republican politics, donating to sitting officials, funding primary challenges, and leveraging the trust that comes with being seen as insiders. The money they allegedly stole from retirees circulated through the same networks those retirees believed they were supporting.
What Remains Unknown
Several critical questions remain unanswered. The court-appointed receiver has not yet disclosed how much of the $140 million in investor funds is recoverable. The SEC froze Frost’s assets in July 2025—including funds in 15 First Liberty-related accounts at Truist Financial and three personal accounts at United Community Bank—but the total recovered so far has not been made public.
Criminal proceedings are still in their early stages. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has referred multiple individuals for prosecution, but no criminal indictments have been announced as of this writing. The SEC’s civil case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, is ongoing, with monetary remedies yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, the political recipients of Frost’s donations have not publicly addressed whether they intend to return the funds. Raffensperger—who received $8,417 from the Frost family and is now leading the state-level investigation—has not indicated any plans to return those contributions, though his office has been credited by victims for aggressively pursuing the case.
For the roughly 250 investors still waiting to recover their money, the $6.7 million settlement offers little comfort. It represents less than 5 percent of the total alleged fraud. The rest depends on what a federal receiver can claw back from a man who, according to the SEC, was still converting investor funds into gold coins even after federal investigators came calling.
Neither Brant Frost IV nor his legal representatives responded to publicly available contact channels. Nathaniel Darnell, through attorney Doug Gilfillan, has denied the allegations against him. The SEC case remains pending in the Northern District of Georgia.