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Georgia investors reeling after First Liberty collapse; feds reportedly involved
Newnan Times-Herald ^ | July 1, 2025 | Clay Neely

Posted on 07/03/2025 7:40:12 PM PDT by Coronal

First Liberty Building and Loan, a Newnan-based private lending firm operated by the Frost family, abruptly shut down this week, suspending all payments to investors and announcing it is cooperating with federal authorities as it winds down operations.

In a notice posted to its website, First Liberty said it would no longer accept new investments or make bridge loans, and that interest payments on existing promissory notes and other investments were “indefinitely suspended.”

The company also stated employees would not be taking calls or emails while it works with federal agencies to sort through its affairs.

The announcement marked a stunning downfall for the local firm and is now leaving local families to confront steep financial losses.

‘It all looked like a slam dunk’ Jordan Baldwin, a Sharpsburg resident, is among the investors now grappling with the fallout.

Over the past three and a half years, he invested roughly $230,000, primarily through what First Liberty promoted as short-term bridge loans.

The promise, he said, was straightforward: First Liberty would provide quick capital to businesses that were already approved for traditional small business loans. Once those bank loans closed, investors would be repaid, plus high interest.

“They’d tell you someone was trying to borrow $5 million, and they were worth $20 million, so if Brant (Frost IV) had to liquidate them, you’d probably be made whole,” Baldwin said. “It all looked like a slam dunk.”

Baldwin explained that these deals were typically structured in $100,000 increments, though Frost sometimes allowed $50,000 buy-ins for close friends.

Investors signed contracts for 12- to 18-month bridge loans, pitched as short-term financing to businesses simply waiting on larger bank funding to come through.

The examples varied, from supplying railroad ties to CSX to expansions of memory care facilities or urology practices, but the premise was always the same: once the bigger loan cleared, investors would get paid back with high interest.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: balancesheet; bridgeloans; clayneely; firstliberty; flbl; georgia
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1 posted on 07/03/2025 7:40:12 PM PDT by Coronal
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To: Coronal

“once the bigger loan cleared, investors would get paid back with high interest.”

Sounds like an email I got from a dude in Nigeria.


2 posted on 07/03/2025 7:45:34 PM PDT by TexasGator (i.. logo About Issues Projects Products Connect Subscribe Invest June 19, 2025 | Insight '1-1111 -)
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To: TexasGator

A fool and his money…


3 posted on 07/03/2025 7:47:29 PM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: Coronal

Watch out for those churchy folks, they are the ones most likely to screw you.


4 posted on 07/03/2025 7:48:10 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: All
a Newnan-based private lending firm operated by the Frost family

I got Frost bit once and that was enough.

5 posted on 07/03/2025 8:02:33 PM PDT by BipolarBob (I tried pushing the envelope but it remained stationery.)
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To: Coronal

“The promise, he said, was straightforward: First Liberty would provide quick capital to businesses that were already approved for traditional small business loans. Once those bank loans closed, investors would be repaid, plus high interest.”

Sounds like high-interest Payday Loans for businesses...except the lenders got burned, for once.


6 posted on 07/03/2025 8:16:33 PM PDT by BobL
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To: TexasGator

They may as well have invested in a disgronificator factory. 😁


7 posted on 07/03/2025 8:18:43 PM PDT by alstewartfan (Old admiras who feel the wind Are never put to sea. Al Stewart)
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To: TexasGator

It does sound pretty scammy. Kind of like payday loans. If that’s what their business model was, this is a bit of karma.


8 posted on 07/03/2025 8:39:05 PM PDT by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: Coronal

This is the financial company that Erick Erickson is constantly hawking on his radio show.


9 posted on 07/03/2025 8:53:16 PM PDT by CFW
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To: Coronal

‘It all looked like a slam dunk’ Jordan Baldwin, a Sharpsburg resident, is among the investors now grappling with the fallout.”

Fools and their money. It’s a miracle they got together at all.

L


10 posted on 07/03/2025 8:55:25 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Coronal

Some sort of Ponzi scheme?


11 posted on 07/03/2025 8:57:56 PM PDT by citizen (A transgender male competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: Coronal

“It all looked like a slam dunk.”

And there’s your FIRST clue...


12 posted on 07/03/2025 9:06:01 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy.)
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To: citizen

It looks like it.


13 posted on 07/03/2025 9:13:25 PM PDT by Coronal
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To: Coronal

It says this Brant Frost V is the first vice-president of the Georgia Republican Assembly, for what that’s worth.


14 posted on 07/03/2025 9:39:44 PM PDT by citizen (A transgender male competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: CFW

Thats such a shock.lol


15 posted on 07/03/2025 10:30:32 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Coronal

Is it me or does it sounds like a Ponzi Scheme?


16 posted on 07/04/2025 1:45:47 AM PDT by DeplorableTrumpSupporter (FKA ConservaTeen)
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To: DeplorableTrumpSupporter

It’s not just you.


17 posted on 07/04/2025 1:50:13 AM PDT by Coronal
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To: Coronal

bkmk


18 posted on 07/04/2025 3:05:23 AM PDT by ptsal (Vote R.E.D. >>>Remove Every Democrat ***)
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To: citizen
“ Some sort of Ponzi scheme?”

Probably. These high return, low risk “investments” usually are.

19 posted on 07/04/2025 3:09:15 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: Coronal

The biggest thing about Ponzi schemes is that they work on targeted groups who have an affinity based on interests, ethnicity, religion, or other groupings. I had a neighbor down the street in Boca Raton who was a mini-Madoff. He and his business partner scammed investors out of approximately $140 million and were sued civilly by the SEC and criminally by the USA. They ended up with 12- and 15-year sentences, as well as a restitution order of $ 99 million. My neighbor got the 15-year sentence. Although the two partners were charged identically, the jury convicted my neighbor of more counts than his partner. My neighbor’s remaining sentence (but not restitution) was commuted in Joe Biden’s January Jomborree of pardons and commutations.

The premise of their Ponzi scheme is that they were selling investors slices of their investments in “recurring streams of revenue,” which in their case was “triple-play” contracts to serve homes in Florida with cable, internet, and alarm services.

The affinity links they exploited were up-state NY residents, thoroughbred horse racing, golf and Irish ancestry. A receiver was appointed back in 2010 and has just wrapped his work in recovering about $23M for investors (who had paid in about $136M.)


20 posted on 07/04/2025 3:23:34 AM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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