Aletheia Research and Management, a fast-growing Santa Monica money-management firm, is wrestling with a deep rift between its founders as well as an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Aletheia manages more than $7 billion in assets and recently drew attention for its role in the shareholder fight at Barnes & Noble. Now a lawsuit brought by an Aletheia founder, Roger B. Peikin, may throw an unwanted spotlight on the firm.

The complaint, filed against the firm and its chief executive, Peter J. Eichler Jr., in state court in Los Angeles, describes a bitter split between Peikin and Eichler, who together started Aletheia in 1997. Peikin says that he and Eichler clashed over Eichler’s “trading practices, general disregard for regulatory controls, wanton expenditure of corporate assets for Eichler’s personal benefit, and overall neglect of the business side of Aletheia’s operations.”

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