LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) filed civil fees in opposition to Julie Anne Darrah within the U.S. District Court docket for the Central District of California on Friday, Oct. 20, alleging the Santa Maria Valley-based monetary advisor misappropriated round $2.25 million from at the least 9 consumer’s belongings in addition to knowingly submitted false and deceptive paperwork to the SEC.
4 companies within the Santa Maria Valley and partially owned by Darrah: Cups and Crumbs in Orcutt and Santa Maria; The Homestead in Orcutt; and Central Coast Specialty Meals in Lompoc, abruptly shuttered their companies on Tuesday, Oct. 24 utilizing the identical or comparable social media assertion that learn partially, “Hey everybody. We’re closing early at present and will probably be closed for an undetermined interval as a result of an unexpected circumstance.”
The SEC’s grievance included an Ex Parte utility for a Short-term Restraining Order in addition to an Order to Present Trigger so as, “To halt Darrah’s dissipation of belongings commingled with funds belonging
to the defrauded shoppers and probably others,” acknowledged the grievance.
Along with these fees, Darrah can be dealing with a civil lawsuit filed by Wealth Enhancement Group, a Minnesota-based firm that acquired Vivid Monetary Administration (VFM), an organization co-founded by Darrah and, on the time of the acquisition in 2021, boasted its six advisors collectively oversaw $674 million in belongings.
Wealth Enhancement Group terminated Darrah’s employment following an inner investigation on Sep. 15, 2023, detailed the SEC grievance.
The SEC grievance alleges that the scheme started in 2016, whereas Darrah was working at VFD because the president and chief compliance officer, and that she focused aged feminine monetary advisory shoppers.
Along with offering Darrah with discretionary authority over their brokerage accounts, lots of the shoppers appointed Darrah to function a trustee on trusts they arrange for themselves whereas others gave Darrah energy of legal professional to deal with their funds element the SEC of their grievance.
In keeping with the SEC grievance, between November 2016 and July 2023, Darrah misappropriated roughly $2.25 million from the 9 shoppers cited within the grievance and commingled these funds along with her private {and professional} accounts.
Moreover, Darrah is alleged to have used the ill-gotten positive aspects for the good thing about PC&J Joint Ventures LLC, a restaurant possession company she owned and the SEC particulars that she explicitly used consumer funds to purchase and enhance properties, pay her private bills, purchase luxurious autos, and purchase and function food-related companies at a loss.
Throughout the SEC’s pre-filing investigation, Darrah invoked her privilege in opposition to self-incrimination underneath the Fifth Modification to the U.S. Structure and declined to touch upon the violations alleged within the grievance.
