A Los Angeles federal judge ordered a defunct Arroyo Grande investment management company to pay $4 million in connection with a former Santa Maria financial advisor who was sent to prison for defrauding elderly clients, overruling objections that it had nothing to do with the scheme.

U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer issued his order on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, ruling that Vivid Financial Management must pay back more than $2 million misappropriated in the scheme, and an additional civil penalty of $2 million in the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging former financial advisor Julie Darrah stole from her elderly female clients.

“Vivid was not merely a passive actor,” Fischer said in the order. “Together, Vivid and Darrah owed their clie

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