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First Magnus Financial Corp. still is not sending out paychecks to its former employees.

But the Tucson-based mortgage lender announced it is creating an assistance fund of more than $1 million to ease the burden.

In a news release, the company said paychecks have been delayed because its accounts were frozen by investors that provided capital to First Magnus to make loans.

The company was forced to shut down operations last week because it could no longer sell the loans it originates on the secondary market. The release said shareholders and executives of the company have pledged more than $1 million of their own money to assist Tucson-based former employees who “face significant hardship as a result of the payroll delay.”

Earlier, the company told employees to expect their checks by mail rather than direct deposit. Under both state and federal law, checks were due to employees on Monday.

First Magnus, which identified itself as one of the nation’s largest privately-owned mortgage lenders, made loans in all 50 states and employed nearly 6,000 nationwide. Almost all of those workers lost their jobs on Thursday.

First Magnus spokesman Gary Baraff said that only Southern Arizona employees will be eligible for the assistance from the fund because the company anticipates it will be harder for those employees to find other jobs than those who worked elsewhere in the country.

That’s because the Tucson workers’ jobs pertained to the company’s headquarters operations while employees elsewhere were in more common loan origination positions.

A Web page providing more details about the assistance fund will be available this afternoon at www.firstmagnus.com., according to the news release.