California Central Trust Bank Appointed to Administer First Pension Accounts

A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday appointed California Central Trust Bank to administer about $250 million worth of investments remaining in failed First Pension Corp., one of Orange County’s longest-running pyramid schemes.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Lynne Riddle turned over to the Costa Mesa company, known as CalTrust, the chore of managing the accounts for most of First Pension’s nearly 8,000 clients.

In about three weeks, CalTrust plans to provide investors with easy access to their accounts for the first time since all assets at the Irvine pension management firm were frozen in late April.

“Hopefully, we can get these investors on the road as fast as we can. They’ve been through a tough time,” said Roni Renfro, president of CalTrust, a limited-service bank with $155.7 million in investments and other assets. “We’re starting the process. Everything will be housed here by Oct. 17.”

First Pension owners William E. Cooper, Valerie Jensen and Robert E. Lindley have pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of $121.5 million in an elaborate pyramid scheme through investments in mortgages that did not exist. The three are scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Nov. 10.

The assets being transferred to CalTrust involve about 7,000 accounts, mostly individual retirement accounts invested in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. CalTrust will not be administering funds invested in the mortgages that did not exist.

CalTrust is receiving records from both First Pension and Summit Trust Services of Colorado, the now-failed trust company created by First Pension’s three owners to handle client money.

Investors have about 45 days to decide if they want their accounts to remain at CalTrust or if they prefer to transfer funds to another pension administration company.

Andrew Snyder, the court-appointed receiver for Summit, said he is still trying to create a distribution plan for the remaining $9 million of the $34 million in client funds that Summit was supposed to hold.