How the Collapse of the FEC Enabled the Rise (and Fall) of First Liberty
How did a small lending firm in Newnan, Georgia become the financial nerve center of a political movement? And why did it take a total collapse before anyone stepped in?
How the Collapse of the FEC Enabled the Rise (and Fall) of First Liberty
By Jeremy McKeown, Editor of CobbProb
July 2025
Correction (July 6, 2025): An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Katie Frost as the daughter of Brant Frost V. She is the daughter of Brant Frost IV. The error has been corrected in the text.
In late June 2025, First Liberty Building & Loan abruptly shut its doors, suspending all operations and leaving scores of investors in limbo. For years, First Liberty had offered high-interest, unsecured investment products known as "First Liberty Notes," promising annual returns as high as 13%. But what set this firm apart wasn't just its financial model, it was its political footprint.
First Liberty wasn’t just a lender. It shared addresses, leadership, and a donor base with the Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA), a powerful grassroots faction within the state GOP. Brant Frost V, its Vice President, was also Vice Chair of the Coweta County Republican Party and deeply embedded in the GRA's organizational infrastructure. Its influence extended beyond finance and into the heart of Georgia Republican politics. (AJC, July 2025)
So how did a company this politically connected operate for so long without oversight?
That question leads us to another story that slipped under the national radar: the quiet dismantling of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
What Happens When the Referee Leaves the Field?
In early 2025, President Trump dismissed longtime Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub. Her removal, combined with unfilled vacancies, left the Federal Election Commission (FEC) without the legally required quorum to conduct investigations, issue advisory opinions, or enforce campaign finance laws. A quorum is the minimum number of commissioners, 4 out of 6, required to conduct official business. (CBS News, February 2025)
Without a functioning FEC, who was left to track the movement of money between private investment firms and political action committees (PACs)? Who, if anyone, was watching for signs of coordination, undisclosed contributions, or conflicts of interest?
Could First Liberty Have Thrived in a Fully Functional Oversight Environment?
Had the FEC been operational, the firm's close ties to a political PAC might have triggered inquiries. Could the PAC have received funds indirectly tied to investor money? Were political campaigns benefiting from a private lending operation that promised lucrative returns to donors? These are the kinds of questions the FEC is designed to ask.
Instead, no such questions were raised. And when First Liberty collapsed in June 2025, the only agencies left to respond were the FBI, SEC, and state regulators - none of which have direct oversight of campaign finance law. (The Citizen, July 2025)
A Convention Under a Cloud
Just weeks before the firm’s implosion, the Georgia Republican Party held one of the most contentious state conventions in recent memory. Allegations of credentialing irregularities, power struggles between grassroots factions and establishment loyalists, and financial opacity plagued the event.
Many delegates and observers noted that leaders and funders closely associated with First Liberty had played pivotal roles in shaping the convention’s outcomes. Among them was Katie Frost, daughter of Brant Frost IV, who served as Chair of the 3rd Congressional District GOP and also chaired the GAGOP Convention Nominating Committee. At the time, she was also a member of the Georgia Republican Assembly. Her dual role placed her in a position of significant influence during a pivotal internal power struggle within the party. Following the convention, the Frost family resigned from the GRA - just days before First Liberty collapsed and confirmed it was under SEC investigation. This sequence of events raises new questions about the intersection of political strategy, internal party power, and financial entanglements.
In retrospect, this overlap raises key questions:
Did First Liberty funding help facilitate any aspect of the convention or related political activity?
Was the firm’s financial collapse timed to avoid disclosures that might have cast a shadow over the event?
Were any PACs or campaigns benefiting from First Liberty-related funds prior to or during the convention?
With no FEC oversight, these increasingly urgent questions remain unanswered.
The GRA’s Crossroads: Principles or Proxies?
As of July 2025, the Georgia Ethics Commission now lists the Georgia Republican Assembly PAC as officially terminated. (Georgia Ethics Commission) The timing of this termination, coming on the heels of First Liberty’s collapse and increasing scrutiny of political funding, raises further questions about the GRA’s political and financial entanglements. Was the PAC’s shutdown a legal necessity, or a strategic retreat?
The Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA) has long positioned itself as the principled, reform-minded wing of the GOP - calling for transparency, accountability, and constitutional values. But First Liberty’s collapse, an institution tightly connected to GRA leadership, now raises a sobering question:
Can a movement demanding integrity withstand the exposure of financial recklessness in its own ranks?
As investigators follow the money, they’ll likely ask what First Liberty investor funds supported. Were GRA-backed PACs or candidates indirectly funded? Were internal political battles, such as the contested 2025 state convention, backed by a private lending machine with no oversight?
Without the FEC, no one was asking these questions. But they’re coming now.
If investigators determine that First Liberty funds touched GRA political operations, it could potentially expose the organization to legal scrutiny - including IRS scrutiny, PAC investigations, or loss of nonprofit protections. Even the perception of impropriety may damage GRA-backed candidates ahead of the 2026 primaries.
What the GRA does next will define it. Will it investigate and disclose any financial ties? Will it stand by a moral standard that includes its own? Or will it deflect and risk being seen as just another faction wielding unchecked power behind a reformist label?
As the dust settles, the Georgia Republican Assembly stands at a crossroads. Either it holds to the standard it demands of others - or it becomes another casualty of the very system it claims to oppose. The First Liberty collapse may have exposed more than a financial failure. It may have revealed a movement’s moment of truth.
Why Should Voters Care?
When campaign finance enforcement breaks down, the consequences reach beyond the donor class. Dark money, untraceable political spending from undisclosed sources, floods elections. Politically connected actors use financial leverage to entrench their influence. And when those systems collapse, it's ordinary investors and citizens left holding the bag.
Imagine donating to a cause you believe in, expecting transparency and impact, only to later learn that your money may have flowed through a failed lender tied to political insiders.
Without transparency, accountability dies. And without accountability, the public cannot trust that elections, or the financial systems surrounding them, are fair.
What Comes Next?
What happens next depends on whether institutions like the FEC are restored, reformed, or permanently sidelined. It also depends on whether investigators are willing to follow the money, even when it leads straight through the heart of political machines.
Until then, First Liberty stands as a warning - a case study in what happens when political influence and financial power merge unchecked in the dark. Until transparency is restored, every political victory risks being funded by shadows.
The next chapter won’t be written by regulators alone. It will be shaped by what citizens are willing to demand in response.
Citations and Records
AJC (July 2025). "Collapse of GOP-linked Georgia lender sparks state and federal scrutiny." https://www.ajc.com/politics/2025/07/collapse-of-gop-linked-georgia-lender-sparks-state-and-federal-scrutiny/
CBS News (February 2025). "Trump removes FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democratic-fec-chair-ellen-weintraub-trump-fired-her/
The Citizen (July 2025). "First Liberty Building and Loan collapses, leaving clients in limbo." https://thecitizen.com/2025/07/02/first-liberty-building-and-loan-collapses-leaving-clients-in-limbo/
Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. "Georgia Republican Assembly PAC Committee Details."
https://efile.ethics.ga.gov/#/exploreCommitteeDetail/hIJ5OP5fzG5nfOrkeKZjvZP4048PFnxLXRUfdOLcQk01
First Liberty Building and Loan. Sounds like a bank, right? But it was not FDIC insured.
Brant Frost V sold an investment product. But he reportedly never received a securities sales license, called a Series 7.