FundAmerica Officials Sue Parent Firm : Management: The marketing company’s chairman and president try to block their ouster. FundAmerica Holdings will ask a bankruptcy judge to dismiss the pair.

The battle for control of FundAmerica heated up Wednesday when the chairman and president sued the parent firm of the controversial marketing company, seeking to block an attempt to oust them from their jobs.

Meanwhile, officials of parent company FundAmerica Holdings said late Wednesday evening that they will ask a federal bankruptcy judge today to dismiss FundAmerica Chairman Peter Bradshaw and President Mitchell Blumberg. If that fails, the officials said they will seek the appointment of an independent trustee to manage the company.

FundAmerica is trying to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and has said it intends to resume marketing operations as early as next week. The company and its founder, Robert T. Edwards, are facing a criminal trial in Florida on charges they ran a massive pyramid scheme.

On Monday, Blumberg and Bradshaw were locked out of the company’s Irvine offices. That same day, FundAmerica Holdings sued the two men for fraud and other charges. FundAmerica Holdings president is George Davis, Edwards’ personal attorney.

“Even liquidation would be more beneficial than Blumberg and Bradshaw running it (FundAmerica),” said Richard Marshack, an attorney for FundAmerica Holdings. He accused the two men of mismanaging the company.

On Wednesday, Blumberg and Bradshaw had returned to FundAmerica’s office and said they were still managing the company. Blumberg, in court papers and in an interview, said Edwards is trying to regain control of the company, using Davis as a front man.

Edwards is expected to go on trial June 10. Florida authorities have alleged that FundAmerica was a pyramid scheme--a con game that takes money from people at the bottom of a “pyramid” and enriches those at the top. He has denied those accusations, saying the company is legitimate.

Blumberg said in a declaration filed Wednesday that there are “certain federal investigations currently under way in which the company has cooperated.” Sources said that the FBI and IRS are investigating Edwards and his alleged role in transferring about $20 million in company funds to overseas entities before his resignation from FundAmerica last July.

Blumberg said in an interview Wednesday that Edwards had called him several times in March and demanded that he be rehired by FundAmerica as a consultant. He quoted Edwards as saying, “I made it; I built it; I created it and it’s mine.”

Edwards signed an agreement at the time of his resignation in July saying that he would not return to FundAmerica until all “criminal and quasi-criminal charges” against him had been dismissed, according to court papers.

Marshack said Edwards is preoccupied with his June trial but said his client does look forward to the day he will once again rule FundAmerica.