Fremont General Corp. announced Monday that the company had moved its executive offices from Santa Monica to the Orange County headquarters of its Fremont Investment & Loan subsidiary.

The move to Brea follows a November management overhaul, in which Stephen Gordon was named as chief executive. Gordon was founder of Irvine’s Commercial Capital Bancorp, which was sold to Washington Mutual Inc. for nearly $1 billion in 2006.

Also hired at the time was another Commercial Capital executive, David DePillo, who now serves as vice chairman and president. An official with Fremont General declined to comment on the reason for the relocation.

Fremont was one of the nation’s biggest subprime lenders, but was forced out of the business last year amid mounting defaults and losses. It now operates 22 retail bank branches in the state and has $8.8 billion in assets and 3,500 employees, including 850 in the county.

The company did not say how many employees would be shifted to Brea.

Fremont becomes the second Los Angeles County company in a week to announce its departure. Computer Sciences Corp. has announced that it is leaving its El Segundo headquarters for Falls Church, Va. where its new chief executive lives. CSC has 90,000 employees.

Shares of Fremont closed down 34 cents to $3.30 in trading Monday on the New Y ork Stock Exchange.