State Rep. Pete Beck, R-Mason, has filed a countersuit against a group of investors who have filed a civil fraud lawsuit against him, claiming they have ruined his reputation.

Beck’s attorneys filed the countersuit, which asks for punitive damages, and a motion to strike “vexatious and scandalous” allegations from the $1.2 million lawsuit that was filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court last month.

“Plaintiff’s motives are deliberate and malicious…” the countersuit reads. “Plaintiffs, or some of them, directly or through agents, have initiated contact with media and governmental agencies for the purpose of slandering Beck and causing Beck public humiliation, embarrassment and harm, in an effort to extort a settlement or other concessions from Beck.”

A number of investors, led by Thomas Walker, filed a civil fraud lawsuit, alleging investors were out more than $1 million. After the suit was filed, Beck’s attorneys, Konrad Kircher and Joe Borchelt, said not only has the statute of limitations likely run out on the action, but the allegations are false.

“The facts are just completely wrong,” Kircher said. “There are a number of plaintiffs here who are very sophisticated investors — they are stock brokers, doctors, a developer. Pete Beck didn’t pull the wool over anybody’s eyes. In fact, he didn’t solicit anybody for any investments. These people all knew what they were getting into, and it was a good business at the beginning.”

Beck, who represents the 54th House District and is the former Mason mayor, is a certified public accountant. The lawsuit alleges he used his accounting acumen to lure investors to put their money into Christopher Technologies, a company that developed alert systems for schools, in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.

The lawsuit also says Beck was involved with a company owned by Thomas M. Lysaght, who is now deceased — his company and his wife Janet Combs are also defendants — and the Ark by the River Fellowship Ministry, another named defendant. The plaintiff investors claim they were duped into investing in the companies by Beck and others, and they have lost their investments, according their attorney J. Thomas Hodges.

Hodges, who hadn’t seen the filings — they were electronically filed on Monday, declined to comment.