Former Ridgeway & Conger Broker Leigh M. Garber Under Investigation

Silver Law Group is investigating New Woodstock, New York-based National Securities Corporation (CRD# 7569) Leigh M. Garber (CRD# 2768572) after FINRA fined the broker $10,000 and suspended her for three months.

According to Garber’s FINRA BrokerCheck report, in October 2016, FINRA and Garber entered into an Acceptance, Waiver & Consent (“AWC”) concerning the allegations.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Garber consented to the sanctions and certain findings. According to the AWC, Garber, as president and CEO of a Ridgeway & Conger, allowed her member firm to conduct a securities business while not maintaining sufficient net capital. According to the AWC, Garber was responsible for the firm’s net capital compliance.

According to the AWC, on several occasions, the net capital deficiencies resulted from the firm’s failure to reflect certain accounting items, including removing liabilities from its book and records they were paid as well as failing to record certain operating expenses.

In January 2016 Garber was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that her firm and two of its representatives sold an unregistered security, according to Garber’s BrokerCheck report. FINRA found that Garber, the firm’s designated supervisor, failed to supervise certain activities including selling the securities at undisclosed markups of 14-33 percent using general solicitation emails that fraudulently misrepresented the product and the respondents’ roles in its development.

FINRA suspended Garber one year and fined her $15,000 due to the alleged supervisory failures.

Leigh owned, operated, and had been employed with multiple firms prior to signing on with National Securities Corporation. From 1998 to 2016, Garber was a shareholder of Clayton Lowell, & Conger Inc. (CRD# 44343). From 2001 to 2016, Garber owned and operated Ridgeway & Conger, Inc. (CRD# 113055). Then, from 2010 to 2016, she owned Adirondack Trading Group LLC (CRD# 103910).

All of the firms were in Madison County, New York. All of the aforementioned brokerage firms Garber owned or had a stake in, except Newbridge Securities Corporation, are currently not registered.

The New York Times published a report about brokers and their BrokerCheck disclosures featuring Garber and her now-defunct firms. The article made note about the high percentage of brokers with disclosures on their BrokerCheck reports at Garber’s brokerage firms.

If you have invested with Leigh M. Garber and Newbridge Securities Corporation, Ridgeway & Conger, Inc., or Adirondack Trading Group LLC and have lost money doing so, you may be able to recover some or all of your losses. Our lawyers are experienced in recovering investor losses due to broker and brokerage firm misconduct through FINRA arbitration.

Silver Law Group represents the interests of investors who have been the victims of investment fraud. If you have questions about your legal rights, please contact Scott Silver of the Silver Law Group for a free consultation at ssilver@silverlaw.com or toll free at (800) 975-4345.