The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge to appoint a receiver to take control of Amerindo Investment Advisors, after its two co-founders, Alberto Vilar and Gary Tanaka, were jailed on criminal charges last week.

The SEC filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against Amerindo, along with Messrs. Vilar and Tanaka, who remain in custody. The agency wants a receiver to oversee operation of the firm and an accounting of Amerindo’s finances.

“Other than Vilar or Tanaka, there does not appear to be an individual at Amerindo with full decision-making authority, who has the resources to address client concerns and account for all funds and investments,” the SEC said in its complaint. “A receiver should be appointed.”

Messrs. Vilar, 64, and Tanaka, 61, were arrested last week and accused of stealing client funds. Federal prosecutors in New York said Mr. Vilar, a multimillionaire money manager and benefactor to the world’s leading opera and ballet centers, stole $5 million from an unidentified client. Mr. Tanaka was charged with using client funds to buy racehorses.

Both men are being held in a federal detention center in New York.

The SEC’s complaint identifies the victim of Mr. Vilar’s alleged fraud by the initials “L.C.” and, in one paragraph in the lawsuit, by the last name “Cates.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Esseks, who’s prosecuting Messrs. Vilar and Tanaka, declined to comment on whether Cates is the unnamed victim in the criminal case.

In a separate suit brought in New York state court last year in which two investors filed claims against Amerindo and Mr. Vilar, a woman named Lily Cates is mentioned as a client of his. Mr. Vilar’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, said yesterday that she believes Lily Cates is the unidentified client whom Mr. Vilar is accused of defrauding in the criminal case. Ms. Cates couldn’t be immediately contacted.

Ms. Cates was identified as a client of Mr. Vilar’s in the defamation suit he filed in Manhattan against two other investors, Lisa Mayer and her sister Debra, and a former FBI agent the two women say they hired to investigate what happened to $11.2 million they placed with Amerindo.

In a counterclaim accusing Messrs. Vilar and Amerindo of stealing the $11.2 million, Lisa Mayer says she was a girlfriend of Mr. Vilar’s.

According to the SEC complaint, Cates had invested with Amerindo since 1987 and had “a close, almost familial relationship” with Mr. Vilar. In June 2002, he induced her to place $5 million in an Amerindo fund that aimed to invest in technology companies, the suit says.

Cates invested on June 20, 2002, and within days, Mr.Tanaka began drawing funds from the account, according to court papers.