The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a federal lawsuit against a Litchfield-based investment advisory company and its chief executive officer, alleging they put $19 million of investor money into risky investments and then kept large commissions from those investments for themselves.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in Bridgeport also claims that Temenos Advisory Inc. and George Taylor, its 62-year-old CEO, defrauded many elderly clients who were approaching retirement and invested from their retirement funds or pension plans into private investments recommended by the defendants.