Deutsche to pay $75 million to settle ADRs abuses case, U.S. SEC says

FILE PHOTO: The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hangs on the wall at SEC headquarters in Washington, DC, U.S., June 24, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo·Reuters
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By Katanga Johnson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday that Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) (DB.N) has agreed to pay nearly $75 million to settle an investigation into the mishandling of pre-release American Depositary Receipts (ADR).

Deutsche Bank did not admit or deny the SEC's findings but agreed to return its "ill-gotten gains" and comply with the SEC's fine, the regulator said.

The SEC said its investigation has revealed "industrywide abuses” in pre-released ADRs, said Stephanie Avakian, of the SEC's Enforcement Division.

“Failures at each institutional link in the chain of these transactions, from depositary bank to broker-dealer, left the markets for those ADRs ripe for potential abuse at the expense of ADR holders.”

Deutsche said in a statement: "The bank provided substantial cooperation to the SEC in its inquiry and voluntarily stopped engaging in pre-release ADR transactions entirely by late 2016."

(Reporting by Katanga Johnson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe)

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