ST. LOUIS — A businessman facing charges in former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger’s pay-to-play scandal was ordered Friday to repay $1.2 million to investors and pay a $30,000 civil penalty.

The order, by Missouri's Commissioner of Securities, follows a petition filed against John G. Rallo by the Missouri secretary of state’s securities division in May.

Rallo, of Olivette, did not respond to that petition. His lawyer declined to comment at the time.

In the petition, state officials say five investors in the St. Louis area and one in Utah gave Rallo a total of $1.3 million for a company, Food for Health International LLC, that was purportedly going to supply coconut powder to large retailers. The petition says that although Rallo claimed FFH could not repay investors, he'd actually funneled the money into his other businesses.

Friday's final order bans Rallo from selling unregistered securities, transacting business as an unregistered agent or broker-dealer or employing an unregistered agent. It orders Rallo to pay $30,000 in civil fines, FFH to pay $40,000 and both to pay $1.28 million in restitution, plus the $4,417 cost of the investigation.