Wedbush Securities Inc. has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for more than $8.1 million over charges the financial services company mishandled prereleased American depository receipts, the agency announced Tuesday.

It is the latest in a series of SEC settlements as the agency carries on an investigation into financial institutions' mishandling of American depository receipts, a U.S. depository bank-issued certificate representing shares in a foreign companies' stock.

“In today's action, we charge that Wedbush facilitated the issuance of ADRs that were not backed by ordinary shares,” said Sanjay Wadhwa, the senior associate director of the SEC's New York Regional Office, in a press release. “As this investigation has shown, Wedbush was one of numerous market participants that should have known its actions left the ADR markets ripe for abuse.”

According to the SEC, the Los Angeles-based financial services company obtained prereleased ADRs when neither Wedbush nor its customers owned the foreign shares to back up the securities. Wedbush's alleged actions led to a false inflation of the foreign issuer's tradable securities and, eventually, improper trading strategies such as short selling and dividend arbitrage.

Without admitting or denying charges that Wedbush violated the Securities Act of 1933, the company agreed to pay more than $4.8 million in disgorgement for wrongdoing, $800,000 in prejudgment interest, and a more than $2.4 million penalty.

“Wedbush takes seriously its obligations under the securities laws and we are pleased to resolve this matter relating to conduct that we voluntarily ceased in 2013,” said Wedbush co-presidents Rich Jablonski and Gary Wedbush in a statement. “This is one of several legacy regulatory matters that our leadership team has sought to resolve so that we can continue to focus on serving our clients to the best of our ability.”

So far, the SEC has brought action against 11 banks and brokers. Earlier this year, Bank of America-owned Merrill Lynch coughed up more than $8 million over alleged ADR mishandling. JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Bank and Citibank have also faced recent SEC action. The settlement total exceeds $422 million.

The agency said Tuesday that it will continue its focus on abusive ADR prerelease practices. The SEC's investigation is led by a team from its New York Regional Office and supervised by Wadhwa.

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