Content area
Full Text
Hibbard Brown & Co., a New York City-based brokerage firm, closed its Pennsylvania offices including one in Lancaster on Friday, Aug. 12. According to a July 27 Philadelphia Inquirer article, Hibbard Brown plans a sell its offices to avoid prosecution.
The local Hibbard office had 22 brokers. As of press time on Monday, the telephones in the Lancaster office had been disconnected.
Hibbard was the sixth largest brokerage . firm in Central Pennsylvania, according to a 1993 Business Journal survey, which ranked firms by number of licensed brokers.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Hibbard Brown with cheating its customers in 1992 by inflating stock prices above the fair market value, according to the press report. The National Association of Securities Dealers also alleged that Hibbard inflated stock prices. It has fined the company $25,000 and required it to pay $450,000 in restitution, said Carol Martz, spokeswoman...