The luster has come off Santa Monica precious metals broker Merit Gold.

Just six months after city officials accused the company of running a bait-and-switch scam, Merit last month hastily closed its doors and sold its property to a liquidation company.

Though Merit co-owners Peter Epstein and Mike Getlin have proclaimed their innocence, a judge has frozen their assets – including a Topanga mansion and a Big Bear ski lodge – and said the city is making a case that Merit “was permeated with fraud.”

Read the full story in the September 29 weekly edition of the Business Journal.