Edwin Brant Frost IV was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $76,454,374.39 in restitution to victims of the First Liberty Ponzi scheme, following a Newnan courtroom hearing where investors described losing retirement savings, financial security, and even the trust of their families. Chief U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May imposed a sentence one year longer than the 14 years federal prosecutors recommended and 10 years longer than the five years Frost’s attorneys requested. The 69-year-old Newnan businessman must also serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison sentence. Frost has been given 30 days to surrender and is expected to report to federal prison in Montgomery, Alabama, on Wednesday, November 25, the day before Thanksgiving. The October 26 hearing took place in the federal courthouse in downtown Newnan, just doors away from the former First Liberty Building and Loan offices where Frost operated the business at the center of the fraud. Frost pleaded guilty May 12 to one count of wire fraud. Federal prosecutors said his Ponzi scheme caused more than $76 million in losses to more than 300 investors, many of them retirees who trusted him with their life savings. The courtroom was so crowded that some attendees were directed to an overflow courtroom, where they could hear the proceedings. Among those following the hearing were Coweta County Board of Education member Amy Dees, Georgia Assistant Commissioner of…
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