The order, by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones, helps resolve a long-running case. Cole Bartiromo had already partially settled with the SEC by returning more than $1.1 million in ill-gotten gains.

An attorney for Bartiromo did not immediately return a phone call. Now 20 years old, Bartiromo is in prison in California, serving a 33-month sentence on separate charges of selling cellular telephones and tire rims on eBay that he never delivered and trying to persuade a bank employee to wire him $400,000 from another person's account.

The SEC had accused Bartiromo of operating a Web site called "Invest Better 2001" that offered a risk-free investment promising returns of between 125 percent and 2500 percent. He then transferred money he raised to an account at a casino in Costa Rica, the SEC said.

In her order, the judge wrote that Bartiromo deserved a stiff civil penalty because of the "boldness of the fraud" and because the "scheme ensnared approximately 5,000 victims, and would have continued to mushroom had Bartiromo not been caught." <!--