Justice isn't moving quickly for hundreds of victims who are awaiting new developments in an alleged Ponzi scheme run from a Fresno leasing company.

Ara Jabagchourian, a Bay Area attorney, said his firm continues to take depositions and track down financial information in a potential class-action lawsuit filed against the estate of the late John W. Otto, the company he ran, HL Leasing, and others accused of defrauding investors of as much as $138 million.

It could be late 2010 or early 2011 before the civil case goes to trial, said Jabagchourian, with the Burlingame firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. A trial date could be set by Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald S. Black following a hearing later this month.

(Above right: A sign on the door notified visitors in May that HL Leasing and Heritage Pacific Leasing were closed)

A motion to certify the case as a class-action representing as many as 300 investors throughout California -- and perhaps many more -- was initially supposed to be heard this month. But that has been postponed until at least January at the request of the defendants, court records indicate.

Otto, who lived in Palm Desert, killed himself in May, shortly after the FBI began an investigation of his activities. The investigation was triggered after HL Leasing failed to make its April payouts to investors from returns on supposed commercial equipment leases.

The state's Department of Corporations is also investigating.

The West Shaw Avenue office suite once occupied by HL Leasing and another Otto enterprise, Heritage Pacific Leasing, has been abandoned since Otto's death.

Investigators believe HL Leasing bilked investors by promising them high interest rates on loans secured by equipment leases that agents believe never existed. Instead, money from new investors was used to make interest payments to earlier contributors.

While the FBI is saying little about its ongoing criminal investigation, civil attorneys are trying to untangle a financial web in their efforts to track down assets and recover money for investors. Fresno attorney Donald Fischback has joined the case as co-counsel, Jabagchourian said.

The case is morphing into a miasma of depositions, arguments, motions and actions in which at least two co-defendants -- HL Leasing president Dan Ramirez and executive vice president Norma Lewis -- have filed cross-complaints of their own against their former employer.

Earlier this year, FBI agents searched Otto's country-club home in Palm Desert for evidence in their investigation and seized an airplane belonging to the businessman. Otto was the chief executive of HL Leasing and also operated Air Fred LLC, a charter service at Palm Springs International Airport.