Will Ferrell has accused the J.P. Morgan firm of engaging in unauthorized and unsuitable purchases of preferred securities.

Comedian Will Ferrell is among a group of investors that lost an $18 million securities arbitration case against a unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and must pay the bank’s legal fees, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) panel ruled against Ferrell and his wife, Viveca Paulin, as well as a Los Angeles business manager and a trust, according to a securities arbitration order.

Ferrell and the group filed the case against J.P. Morgan Securities LLC in 2008, accusing the firm of engaging in “unauthorized and unsuitable purchases of preferred securities.”

Ferrell and the group asked that J.P. Morgan be required to rescind the purchase of about $18 million in securities.

A Finra panel denied the claim in a ruling dated Nov. 12.

The panel didn’t provide a reason for its decision, as is customary in securities arbitration cases. It also took the unusual action of requiring Ferrell and the group to pay $600,000 in legal fees and costs to J.P. Morgan Chase. The group must also pay $22,500 for “discovery abuse” and failing to comply with rules and procedures during the case, according to the ruling.

The Finra panel also wrote that it ordered the investors to provide certain documents on three occasions, but they delayed providing information until the evidentiary hearings. Ferrell and the group are solely responsible for paying $12,000 in hearing fees, which typically are split between the parties.

Ordering investors to pay a brokerage firm’s legal fees is “beyond unusual,” said Jonathan Uretsky, a New York securities lawyer who represents brokerages. “It’s about time. I think this should happen more often,” he said.

Cases in which brokerages prevail against investors’ claims are common, he said, but ordering the reimbursement of a brokerage’s legal fees is extremely rare. The $600,000 sum is more than “typical arbitration defense costs,” Uretsky said.

Ferrell, who voices the main character in animated comedy “Megamind,” and his wife didn’t attend the evidentiary hearing in Los Angeles, according to the ruling. They appeared through their agent and co-claimant in the case, business manager Matt Lichtenberg, according to the panel.