Class-Action Lawsuit Targets First Pension Owners, Others : Courts: Four investors seek unspecified damages in O.C. More plaintiffs may join, and additional defendants could be named.

Four investors who say they lost more than $200,000 of their retirement funds in the failure of First Pension Corp. filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against the owners of the Irvine pension management company, lawyers said.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, alleges that former First Pension President William E. Cooper, along with other companies and individuals, violated securities laws and engaged in fraud, deceit, negligence and unfair business practices. The suit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that First Pension operated an elaborate pyramid scheme, misleading clients into investing in mortgages that did not exist. As much as $124 million of investors’ money may have been lost to fraud and outright theft, the SEC has said.

The company, which had an estimated 8,000 clients and accounts valued at $350 million, filed April 22 for liquidation under federal bankruptcy laws.

“There was a lot of money lost with First Pension, and it’s been nearly two months since this first came out,” said James C. Krause, one of the lawyers for the four investors bringing the suit.

“You’ve got the SEC doing their thing, the FBI doing a criminal investigation, and the bankruptcy trustees,” Krause said. “But none of those entities have as a primary charge getting money back for investors. . . . That’s what we’re doing.”

San Diego lawyer Rochelle J. Felitti, who filed Thursday’s lawsuit on behalf of Richard Ting and Patricia Ting of Irvine and Karmele Murray and Joseph T. Murray of San Jacinto, said she expects more First Pension investors to join in.

Also, she said, other lawyers are studying the case, and more defendants--such as related banks or accounting firms--may be added.

“As things become known,” she said, “we will amend the complaint.”

Plaintiff Richard Ting, who with his wife, Patricia, may have lost as much as $130,000 in First Pension mortgage pools that investigators now allege were phony, said the couple’s aim in filing the lawsuit is to recover their money.

The mortgage pools were operated through First Diversified Financial Services Inc., the parent company of First Pension.

First Diversified has not filed for bankruptcy. The SEC has the authority to appoint a trustee to evaluate its assets but has not done so yet.

“There’s no one doing anything about the mortgage pools,” Ting said.

In early May, the SEC alleged that First Pension’s three principals--Cooper and his two long-term associates, Robert E. Lindley and Valerie Jensen--operated a scheme that used money from new investors to pay dividends to earlier ones. The three recently agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges, which have yet to be filed.

Thursday’s lawsuit states that “defendants Cooper, Jensen, Lindley . . . knowingly and/or recklessly failed to disclose that the trust deeds securing the limited partnerships failed to exist.”

The suit also names other companies in which the three defendants were involved, including First Diversified. It also names other individuals, among them Terri Cooper, William Cooper’s wife; and Sandee Russell, his secretary.