Alleged con man who made big promises and pledged big checks in Mahoning County Jail
Frost is also being sued in civil court by Santisi Wholesale in Youngstown for delivery of $138,000 of goods.
Ed Frost who made big promises, pledged big checks, and claimed his boyhood hobby had turned into a multi-million dollar business, was welcomed in communities across the region.
Community leaders believed that Frost was a successful businessman who wanted to give back to the community where his businesses were located.
Ed Frost from Ravenna pledged $500,000 for a stadium project at the Cardinal school district for it's stadium project in Geauga County.
But kids have been disappointed. They had hoped for a track so they could have track meets there, but the money pledged doesn't exist.
Firefighters tell 21 news that Frost pledged $450,000 to the Mesopotamia Fire Department for a new fire truck. The department in Trumbull County has a truck that is over 20 years old.
According to folks in town the 29 year old made friends easily. Gideon Detwiler said, "Frost was friendly and talked like he would do anything for anybody. But that turned out to be all talk."
Frost, who has prior criminal convictions, was welcomed by the trusting Amish community who for decades conducted transactions and fulfilled obligations with just a handshake.
He was welcomed by elected officials in Ravenna when Frost promised to create jobs.
News organizations did stories on him which further lent legitimacy to Frost. And tweets touted big donations.
Frost is also being sued in civil court by Santisi Wholesale in Youngstown for delivery of $138,000 of goods. Santisi states that promises were made in 2017 that a check was on it's way, but the check never arrived, and the bill or invoice for goods and services was never paid.
Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand said, "People started calling asking about this 29 year old who was pledging a half million dollars to one of the schools in our county. It seemed strange he could come up with that kind of money. Once people started doing some checking they realized he was a registered sex offender, so a lot of the parents at the school were not happy and started calling about that.”
Hildenbrand continued, “We did some checking and found he had got out of prison about a year ago, so where is he going to come up with these millions of dollars? Frost told everybody he owned the Mespo Expo, and that he has done this all his life, bringing truck loads of goods in to have an auction and making money. He told people he also had one in Ravenna and he was in the newspaper that he was going to help revitalize that area and open five of these by the end of the year."
Hildenbrand added, "Frost really convinced some people he was the real deal. When we checked we found out that Portage County had it's own investigation going. He gave small checks to the Mespo fire department and that first check bounced and he said it was a mistake.”
“He wrote them another to cover the costs. The check was a little bigger to cover the one that bounced and a few weeks later it also bounced. He had written this 2.5 Million dollar check to buy the Mespo Expo from an Amish man that owned it. Three days later the account was closed so there never was anything near that kind of money in the account at that bank ever” Hildenbrand said.
“Amish people are pretty trusting because their word is good. So he was buying stuff to sell at the auction house, but the checks were bouncing. We were worried there would be more victims so we said if we can catch him doing something we are going to arrest him because we can not have him victimizing other people in the county, and we need to put a stop to it” Hildebrand continued.
“When you take somebody's stuff and don't pay for it, then you stole it. We will arrest you. If you have any questions about people or a potential scam in Geauga call our office, chances are someone already has called. And do a google search of people. If a deal seems too good to be true it probably is."
The probation hearing out of Mahoning County Judge Scott Kirschbaum is due to one count of attempted theft that Frost pleaded guilty to committing. It was a felony of the 5th degree.
Frost had also agreed to pay $13,750 restitution to the victim. Conditions of community control require Frost to not violate any law for three years. Violations of that agreement may result in Frost serving that three year suspended sentence.
