Ty Detmer, the former Brigham Young University quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner, is being sued along with brother Koy over their involvement in a Texas investment firm.

Triton Financial LLC, an Austin company that co-sponsored the Heisman Trophy Trust and hired former National Football League players to solicit clients, has been sued for fraud by federal regulators and an investor.

Besides Ty Detmer, who won the Heisman as the nation's top college football player in 1990, the investor also sued Heisman winner Chris Weinke, the Florida State quarterback honored in 2000, as well as former NFL quarterback Jeff Blake, the Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported last week.

Koy Detmer played nine seasons in the NFL as a quarterback and on special teams. Brother Ty played 14 seasons of pro ball with six teams.

The former athletes had been hired by the firm to help solicit investments from professional athletes, according to statements on Triton's Web site that have since been removed. In June, Triton hosted a Champions Tour golf event that featured Heisman winners in a charity competition.

Sports Illustrated reported that Ty Detmer is a longtime friend of Triton CEO Kurt Barton and was "senior vice president of athlete services" for the company. Detmer resigned his post last year and in December was named coach of the football team at St. Andrew's Episcopal, a private high school in Austin.

The Triton Financial Web site had contained a video interview with a grinning Ty Detmer. "For us, it's more than a job. It's putting your reputation on the line that this is a solid company. And you know I wouldn't be involved if I didn't feel really good about it," Detmer said on the video, according to Sports Illustrated.

Detmer's attorney did not return a phone call Monday seeking comment.

In a separate lawsuit, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Barton of fraud for allegedly misusing funds that had been raised to buy and overhaul insurance firms.

After Sports Illustrated questioned the firm's marketing in a March article, Triton sent fabricated documents to state regulators, the SEC said. The firm agreed to an asset freeze, and a receiver was hired to track down investor money, court records show.

Triton, which has raised more than $50 million for at least 40 ventures since 2004, "made most of its offerings through personal contacts," the SEC wrote. Salesmen included stockbrokers and "prominent former National Football League players," it said, without accusing any of wrongdoing.

The SEC's lawsuit focuses on Triton Insurance, the firm's main fundraising vehicle from July 2008 through last October. The venture raised $8.4 million from 90 people, mostly by word-of-mouth and the personal contacts of Barton, Triton employees and salesmen, the SEC said. Though clients were initially told their money would be used to buy a specific insurer, the acquisition was put on hold and funds were used to pay bills for Triton and its affiliates, the SEC said.

One investor, clutching a bottle of wine, pulled a handgun on employees at Triton's office on Dec. 11, demanding a refund of her money, the American-Statesman newspaper reported, citing an arrest affidavit. An employee seized the gun while the woman tried to fish a box of bullets from her purse, the newspaper reported.

Rob Whalen, director of the Heisman Trophy Trust, didn't return a phone call seeking comment. The trust is the caretaker of the trophy that honors the year's outstanding college football player. After the lawsuits were filed, Triton's logo was removed from the Heisman Web site, where it had appeared alongside logos for Nissan Motor Co., ESPN and Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc.'s Wendy's hamburger chain.