Brokerage Firm

B. Kenin Hart, 60, president and founder of the Hart Corp. brokerage firm and a resident of Huntingdon Valley, died Tuesday in a plane crash in Kentucky. Mr. Hart and three others were on their way to tour a factory site when the Beechcraft King Air C-90 crashed about noon as the pilot tried to land at an airport in Somerset, Ky. Mr. Hart began his real estate career at age 18 when he began selling manufacturing facilities for a Philadelphia brokerage firm. At 23, he founded the brokerage firm, a business that now specializes in buying, leasing and selling industrial properties of more than 40,000 square feet.

A local real-estate brokerage firm has charged that Bell Atlantic Properties reneged on a promise to pay commissions in connection with Bell's $148.7 million acquisition of 41 properites and 300 acres of land from Pitcairn Properties Inc. last year. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Dec. 31, the brokerage firm, Isard-Greenberg Co., said it was seeking $3 million in damages. A spokesman for Bell Atlantic Properties said yesterday that it would be "inappropriate to comment on the allegations because the matter is currently in litigation.

A Montgomery County couple, claiming they lost more than $300,000 of their savings, have filed a suit charging Shearson Lehman Bros. Inc. with securities fraud, negligence, breach of contract and "churning" their stock account. The suit, filed Oct. 10 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, accuses the Boston-based brokerage firm of unauthorized and excessive trading in the couple's account for "the sole purpose of generating" commissions. It was the second suit filed this month against Shearson by a Philadelphia- area investor and the third suit since August.

Edward J. Tague Jr., 85, a retired trader with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, died of a cerebral hemorrhage Tuesday at Paoli Memorial Hospital. He began at the stock exchange in 1936 and stayed there until 1976, although he kept his seat on the exchange until last year. From 1952 through 1965, he was a member of the board of governors. During the 1960s, the period of the exchange's greatest growth, he chaired the Committee on Floor Procedure and worked to attract institutional investors.

Robert W. Drummond, 82, a member of the board of directors of Crown Cork & Seal Inc. who helped build the manufacturer of beverage cans into a Fortune 500 company, died Friday at his vacation home in West Palm Beach, Fla. A Philadelphia native and resident of Stone Harbor, N.J., Mr. Drummond had a financial career that spanned the two major stock market crashes of the century. As a young account executive at the now-defunct Philadelphia brokerage firm of E.H. Rollins & Son, he anticipated the Black Monday crash of Oct. 29, 1929, and actually profited from the disaster by placing low bids on blue-chip stocks beforehand, said his daughter, Beverly D. Mowbray.

Howard Butcher 3d, the 90-year-old chairman emeritus of Butcher & Singer Inc., has been accused of engaging in "dishonest or unethical practices" by the Pennsylvania Securities Commission. Also named in the commission's order was Stuart M. Hammerle, an investment officer at the Philadelphia brokerage firm. The commission, officials said yesterday, will schedule a hearing to determine the validity of the charges. If the allegations are substantiated, the men could be barred or suspended from trading securities in Pennsylvania.

Edgar Scott was a man of money and prestige. Heir to the Pennsylvania Railroad fortune, Scott studied at Groton School and Harvard and went on to co-found the largest brokerage firm in Philadelphia, Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. But his greatest loves were not money and prestige, but his wife and the arts. Hope Montgomery Scott was an elegant Main Line socialite and famous equestrian. She dined with Winston Churchill on Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis' yacht and was portrayed by Katharine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story" and by Grace Kelly in "High Society.

At age 82, Harry G. Kuch has survived the Great Depression, World War II, one stroke, two bouts with cancer and a heart attack. He's outlived three of his five children and many of his competitors. "I'm the luckiest man alive," he says. He's also an anomaly. As president of the small - but very profitable - brokerage firm he opened in 1945, he's been selling stocks and bonds in Philadelphia for nearly 60 years and has survived revolutionary changes in his industry. Only last year his firm, H.G. Kuch & Co., was acquired by the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund, the nation's oldest life-insurance company.

Q uestion. With seemingly stable companies such as AIG, JPMorgan, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, MF Global and Peregrine having financial problems, how safe are investor monies held/deposited with national brokers such as Scottrade, [TD] Ameritrade, Vanguard, Schwab and others? Answer. It's a shame that people feel compelled to ask this question, because it shows how far trust has slipped since we learned in 2008 and afterward that we cannot rely on financial companies, politicians or regulators to protect investors or taxpayers.

WASHINGTON - Republicans on a House panel that investigated the collapse of the brokerage MF Global are pinning the blame on ex-CEO Jon S. Corzine, a former New Jersey Democratic senator and governor. The Republicans say the investigation has found that Corzine's decisions caused MF Global's bankruptcy in October 2011 and its loss of more than $1 billion in customer money. They say Corzine turned the brokerage firm into an investment bank making risky trades. They also say Corzine ran the firm in an authoritarian manner and did not allow anyone to challenge his decisions.

WASHINGTON - Republicans on a House panel that investigated the collapse of the brokerage MF Global are pinning the blame on ex-CEO Jon S. Corzine, a former New Jersey Democratic senator and governor. The Republicans say the investigation has found that Corzine's decisions caused MF Global's bankruptcy in October 2011 and its loss of more than $1 billion in customer money. They say Corzine turned the brokerage firm into an investment bank making risky trades. They also say Corzine ran the firm in an authoritarian manner and did not allow anyone to challenge his decisions.

Q uestion. With seemingly stable companies such as AIG, JPMorgan, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, MF Global and Peregrine having financial problems, how safe are investor monies held/deposited with national brokers such as Scottrade, [TD] Ameritrade, Vanguard, Schwab and others? Answer. It's a shame that people feel compelled to ask this question, because it shows how far trust has slipped since we learned in 2008 and afterward that we cannot rely on financial companies, politicians or regulators to protect investors or taxpayers.

IN THE REGION US Airways buys AMR debt US Airways Group Inc. seized an opportunity to influence bankruptcy proceedings for potential merger target American Airlines by buying $1 million worth of parent AMR Corp.'s debt. US Airways, Philadelphia's dominant carrier, paid $630,000 to buy AMR notes and become a creditor in the bankruptcy, US Airways airline said. News of the purchase followed American's statement that the airline is ready to consider strategic alternatives, including a possible merger, to its plan to exit bankruptcy as a stand-alone company.

The Humpty Dumpty Institute, a New York nonprofit that forges public-private partnerships to solve humanitarian problems through a variety of programs, has elected Cosmo DeNicola to its board. He is chief sales and marketing officer with Futura Mobility, Philadelphia. Toni Pergolin was named to the board of Fulton Bank of New Jersey, Mount Laurel. Pergolin is president and CEO of Bancroft. Steven R. Cohenwas confirmed by the Pennsylvania Senate to serve on the State Board of Psychology.

A Philadelphia brokerage office defrauded hundreds of mutual funds by disguising abusive trading by two hedge funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday. The SEC filed a civil lawsuit against two former employees of Fiserv Securities Inc. in federal court in Philadelphia, and took administrative action against Fiserv Inc., the firm's former owner, and two employees. The employees deceived mutual funds in order to engage in market timing - rapid trades designed to capture small differences between the fund's price and prices of the stocks it holds - the SEC alleged.

For forensic accountant David Howard Glusman, the numbers in spreadsheets and ledgers can tell a fascinating story. Just like a pathologist can glean evidence from examining a corpse, he said, "in forensic accounting, we're looking at a body, but it's a body of numbers. " "Forensic accounting is when you use accounting skills in court to assist the finder of fact, either a judge or jury," he said. Glusman, 53, a Merion resident, recently was accredited by the Association of Certified Fraud Specialists.

Bill Tyrrell had a middle-age crisis that could not be resolved by buying a Corvette, dyeing his hair, or getting a nose ring. Tyrrell had more pressing problems than a growing paunch or receding hairline. In May 1999, Wheat First Union, a brokerage firm owned by First Union bank, began to downsize. At age 53, that left the Williamstown resident on the outside of a profession he had worked in for more than 30 years. Rather than seek another brokerage firm, Tyrrell enrolled in Gloucester County College's first class of the Teachers 2000 program in September 1999.

Grant A. Hanson, 78, retired owner of a food brokerage business and former resident of Plymouth Meeting, died Friday of cancer at the Hospice of Martin and St. Lucie in Florida. He founded Grant Hanson Associates in 1955 to represent national food manufacturers. The business, now operated by his sons, is based in Plymouth Meeting. Earlier, Mr. Hanson worked for Wesson Oil Co. and other food businesses. His memberships included the National Food Brokers Association and the Delaware Valley Foodservice Association.

B. Kenin Hart, 60, president and founder of the Hart Corp. brokerage firm and a resident of Huntingdon Valley, died Tuesday in a plane crash in Kentucky. Mr. Hart and three others were on their way to tour a factory site when the Beechcraft King Air C-90 crashed about noon as the pilot tried to land at an airport in Somerset, Ky. Mr. Hart began his real estate career at age 18 when he began selling manufacturing facilities for a Philadelphia brokerage firm. At 23, he founded the brokerage firm, a business that now specializes in buying, leasing and selling industrial properties of more than 40,000 square feet.

Scott Korn was 26 years old and had only two years of experience in the paper industry, but he already wanted to start his own paper brokerage business. He set up an office in his Lafayette Hill home in 1989 and sold his sports car to finance the business. He used the $17,000 to purchase rolls of paper. At first, the paper mills tested his dedication and sales skills by giving him small quantities each year. As the business grew, they increased the amount each year. Korn then sold it to commercial printers, companies that cut and resell paper, publishers and small newspapers.