Civil charges filed against Santa Maria Valley financial advisor Julie Anne Darrah
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed civil charges against Julie Anne Darrah in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Friday, Oct. 20, alleging the Santa Maria Valley-based financial advisor misappropriated around $2.25 million from at least nine client's assets as well as knowingly submitted false and misleading documents to the SEC.
Four businesses in 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 Foods in Lompoc, abruptly shuttered their businesses on Tuesday, Oct. 24 using the same or similar social media statement that read in part, "Hello everyone. We are closing early today and will be closed for an undetermined period due to an unforeseen circumstance.”
The SEC's complaint included an Ex Parte application for a Temporary Restraining Order as well as an Order to Show Cause in order, "To halt Darrah’s dissipation of assets commingled with funds belonging
to the defrauded clients and possibly others," stated the complaint.
In addition to those charges, Darrah is also facing a civil lawsuit filed by Wealth Enhancement Group, a Minnesota-based company that acquired Vivid Financial Management (VFM), a company co-founded by Darrah and, at the time of the acquisition in 2021, boasted its six advisors collectively oversaw $674 million in assets.
Wealth Enhancement Group terminated Darrah's employment following an internal investigation on Sep. 15, 2023, detailed the SEC complaint.
The SEC complaint alleges that the scheme began in 2016, while Darrah was working at VFD as the president and chief compliance officer, and that she targeted elderly female financial advisory clients.
In addition to providing Darrah with discretionary authority over their brokerage accounts, many of the clients appointed Darrah to serve as a trustee on trusts they set up for themselves while others gave Darrah power of attorney to handle their finances detail the SEC in their complaint.
According to the SEC complaint, between November 2016 and July 2023, Darrah misappropriated approximately $2.25 million from the nine clients cited in the complaint and commingled those funds with her personal and professional accounts.
Additionally, Darrah is alleged to have used the ill-gotten gains for the benefit of PC&J Joint Ventures LLC, a restaurant ownership corporation she owned and the SEC details that she explicitly used client funds to buy and improve properties, pay her personal expenses, buy luxury vehicles, and buy and operate food-related businesses at a loss.
During the SEC's pre-filing investigation, Darrah invoked her privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and declined to comment on the violations alleged in the complaint.
