Sanctions Sought on First Pension Executives

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that it is seeking to bar two jailed executives of defunct Irvine-based First Pension Corp. from working in the securities industry.

Robert E. Lindley, chief financial officer of First Pension, and Valerie Jensen, the company’s president, were convicted earlier this year for their role in bilking investors out of $136 million between 1984 and 1990.

Lindley was sentenced to nine years in prison and Jensen to 51 months for their involvement in what amounted to a giant Ponzi scheme that misled clients into investing in nonexistent mortgages. Both former First Pension executives and First Pension’s founder, William E. Cooper, were also ordered to repay $73.1 million--the amount investors put into nonexistent mortgages.

Cooper has admitted that he swindled investors out of their retirement savings for a dozen years. In February, a federal judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison.