The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges Wednesday against a California-based broker-dealer firm for facilitating market timing.

The SEC charged broker-dealer National Clearing Corp., its parent company, JB Oxford Holdings Inc., and three NCC executives for facilitating late trading and market timing by certain NCC customers. The SEC’s complaint alleges that from June 2002 until September 2003, the defendants fraudulently facilitated thousands of market timing and late trades in more than 600 mutual funds.

The commission’s complaint charges the firms and three executives with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC seeks an order that permanently enjoins the defendants from future violations; requires the defendants to disgorge all their ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest; requires the defendants to pay civil penalties; and prohibits one of the executives from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

“Our investigations of late trading and abusive market timing have implicated not only traders and mutual fund advisers but also financial intermediaries, said Stephen Cutler, the SEC’s director of enforcement, in a release. “As today’s action demonstrates, we will hold accountable all those market participants – including their management – who engage in or facilitate conduct that harms the investing public.”