Ex-head of big Mich. indie B-D starts investment firm D.B. French

The newly formed investment firm D.B. French & Co. LLC said Friday that it has formed an affiliation to provide broker services through L.M. Kohn & Co. D.B. French, which has 30 independent investment advisers and 15 employees, was formed by Dan French, the former president and chief executive of Leonard & Co. Inc., which billed itself as Michigan's largest independent broker-dealer. Mr. French said July 20 that Leonard & Co. would cease to offer brokerage services, withdrawing as a broker under the supervision of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. He declined to explain the decision but said it had nothing to do with a lawsuit recently filed against him and Leonard & Co. over the sale of $2.4 million in stock in 2009 in Mount Clemens, Mich.-based Community Central Bank Corp. The bank was closed by state and federal regulators in April 2011, and the stock became worthless. “As our broker-dealer, L.M. Kohn gives our advisers — and most importantly their customers — a solid, well-respected platform for conducting their financial business. My role in the new firm is to focus on both continued support of our investment advisers and active recruitment of additional high-integrity, talented advisers,” Mr. French said in a statement. “Our firm continues to expand our footprint in the Midwest and the Southeast by growing our branch network, versus by individual adviser,” said Larry M. Kohn, president and chief executive of L.M. Kohn. “This allows us to maintain a sense of continuity in the new branches, integrate systems more efficiently, provide best-in-class investment services for our clients and maintain our strong supervisory and compliance program.” D.B. French of Troy, Mich., retains Leonard & Co.'s headquarters, phone number and offices in Grosse Pointe, Harbor Springs, Saginaw and Sterling Heights, Mich., Florida and New York. Leonard & Co. was founded in 1989 by the late Donald Leonard. Quarton Partners LLC, a Birmingham, Mich., investment bank formed in 2010 that operated as a division of Leonard & Co., isn't affiliated with D.B. French or L.M. Kohn, which is based in Cincinnati, according to Quarton managing director Andre Augier. It is unclear whether Leonard Capital Markets, another investment-banking division of Leonard & Co., is affiliating with L.M. Kohn. Tom Henderson is a reporter at sibling publication Crain's Detroit Business.