A help center. A class-action suit. A bill in the General Assembly. A series of public meetings.

In the wake of Personal Financial Management's collapse, attention naturally has focused on assisting the largest group of victims.

That's the 800 people who borrowed money through the Berks County firm, only to discover they had bigger mortgages at higher rates with lenders they hadn't dealt with.

But there's another, smaller group of victims, whose numbers were disclosed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents filed Wednesday.

That group is the 31 individuals and couples, including three in Lancaster County, who funded $3.5 million in mortgages offered as investments by the company.

With Personal Financial Management and its affiliates filing for bankruptcy liquidation, this group could lose every cent.

Facing the worst potential loss is a Willow Street woman who's owed $852,000 on her investments in eight mortgages, the court documents showed.

In other new developments in the Personal Financial Management case:

• A federal judge in Harrisburg on Monday extended the temporary freeze on the assets of company owner Wesley A. Snyder through Nov. 16.

A hearing on the issue was postponed from Tuesday until Nov. 8.

A filing by federal prosecutors said the extra time was needed to "substantially facilitate" ongoing talks with Snyder regarding "a final settlement of this case."

• Snyder and his wife, Sydney, got $608,000 from the company and its affiliates the past year, the Reading Eagle reported, citing new court documents.

• The company and its affiliates have $82.9 million in assets and $122.3 million in liabilities, the Reading Eagle also reported, again citing new court documents.

Earlier court documents showed a gap of about $40 million between assets and liabilities. Wednesday's filings specified the shortfall as $39.4 million.

Also disclosed in the array of new bankruptcy court filings were the names of the investors in Personal Financial Management affiliates Image Masters and Mortgage Assistance Professionals.

Besides the Willow Street woman, other victims from Lancaster County are a New Holland woman owed $54,000 on one investment and a Narvon woman owed $122,000 on three investments.

The court filings show the investments are secured by collateral, but the amount and quality of that collateral are not specified, so the extent of the investors' losses is unclear.

Most of the investors are from Berks County, although others live as far away as Arizona, Florida and South Carolina.

CONTACT US: tmekeel@LNPnews.com or 481-6030