OSAKA -- Some 6,000 investors, most of them elderly, are seeking compensation for purchases of worthless securities.

The victims of the financial fraud scheme involving a failed mortgage-backed securities broker will seek 600 million yen in compensation from the national government and other entities at the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka Summary courts, their lawyers said Monday.

About 17,000 victims nationwide purchased securities from Osaka-based Daiwa Toshi Kanzai but later found them to be worthless. Some 3,000 will seek a court-brokered settlement at the court in Tokyo, 1,000 in Nagoya and 2,000 in Osaka, the lawyers said.

"The Kinki Finance Bureau has a great responsibility for the fraud case because it supervised Daiwa Toshi Kanzai," the lawyers said in a prepared statement.

While the moves will be de facto lawsuits for government compensation, the victims have decided to seek court arbitration because the procedure will be shorter than that of formal civil actions, the lawyers said.

Hiroshi Toyonaga, former president of Daiwa Toshi Kanzai, and others were arrested in November for allegedly defrauding clients by misrepresenting the financial products of the company's affiliates.

They will face their first trial session before the Osaka District Court on April 15.

The lawyers proposed a relief plan, under which the national government would buy the securities that the victims had purchased, in November, but the Financial Services Agency rejected the proposal.

Meanwhile, 20 victims have filed a lawsuit against Toyonaga and former executives at Daiwa Toshi Kanzai at the Osaka District Court, seeking some 560 million yen in compensation.