Money Transfers by Ex-Platinum Executives Limited : Courts: Shareholders in class-action suit allege that the Irvine-based software company’s financial picture was misrepresented. They sought a freeze on assets to ensure possible payments to plaintiffs.

A federal judge on Tuesday placed limits on the amount of money that five former Platinum Software Corp. executives can transfer in order to make sure there will be money available to pay plaintiffs in a pending shareholder suit.

U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler ordered the defendants to notify the court if they plan to transfer more than $100,000 in cash or $10,000 in assets out of the country, attorneys in the case said.

“We’re very pleased with this order,” said Helen Hodges, an attorney with the San Diego firm Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes & Lerach.

Attorneys for shareholders had sought to freeze the assets of the defendants, but Stotler agreed only to the partial limitations as a compromise. The bulk of the assets of the defendants will be reserved for a potential judgment in case they lose the suit.

Shareholders filed a class-action suit in January, alleging that the Irvine-based accounting software company violated federal securities laws by failing to tell investors about the company’s sagging financial picture and misreporting earlier revenue. The suit seeks to recover more than $23 million from the former executives, who allegedly sold stock based on inside information.

In April, the company acknowledged that it had overstated its revenue for the previous 18 months, prompting four top executives, including founder and chief executive Gerald R. Blackie, to resign.

Hodges sought the asset freeze order after learning that Blackie transferred $500,000 to a Swiss bank account the day after he resigned from the company. Blackie’s attorney argued that he was simply transferring money overseas because his domestic investments went sour.

Platinum’s former officers, Blackie, and Jon Erickson, former chief financial officer, left the company. Other executives being sued are Timothy McMullen and Kevin Riegelsberger, who resigned their posts as executives but remain employees of the company, and Mark Tague, former treasurer who left the company last year.

Attorneys for the former executives argued against the proposal to freeze assets, saying it would impose financial hardship on them.

The resignations and accounting fiasco forced the company into a crisis and caused its stock to fall to a third of its value before April 18. It has had to replace its management team, cut a third of its 825 employees, take a one-time, $15-million restructuring charge and cut its previously reported revenue by more than $17 million.

Marvin Morgenstein, attorney for Blackie, did not return calls Tuesday for comment. Blackie has taken a job as a consultant for PowerPay Software in Rockville, Md., which makes software for human resource departments.

If the defendants want to transfer more money overseas or into trust accounts than allowed under the court limits, they would have to get court permission. In Blackie’s case, Stotler granted him the right to transfer up to $30,000 a year to his parents in New Zealand without court approval.