Ethics officials say Georgia PAC tied to Ponzi scheme illegally sought to influence elections

Source: AP

Updated 7:40 PM EDT, July 30, 2025


ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Ethics Commission says a political action committee linked to what federal investigators have called a Ponzi scheme illegally sought to influence elections.

The complaint, filed Wednesday, says the spending came from the now-dissolved Georgia Republican Assembly PAC between 2021 and 2024.

The committee was headed by Edwin Brant Frost V, the son of a man named in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit as heading a scheme that took at least $140 million from hundreds of investors. A company named First Liberty Building & Loan promised investors big returns from making high-interest loans to businesses with short-term cash needs, but the SEC complaint says Edwin Brant Frost IV skimmed $17 million for himself, his relatives and their affiliated companies.

More than $1 million of that went to political spending that entrenched the Frost family’s influence in Republican politics in Georgia, Alabama, Maine and other states, investigators said. But while much is disclosed in campaign contributions, Wednesday’s filing raises questions about whether the Frosts were spending on politics in undisclosed ways.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/georgia-republican-ponzi-scheme-ethics-campaign-contributions-dab27c785661008a61c35cab7dad6cc5