Boston Group Sold to National Securities

Assets of Boston Group, a once-high-flying Los Angeles underwriter of low-priced stocks, have been acquired by National Securities Corp., a unit of Olympic Cascade Financial Corp. Chicago-based Olympic Cascade also owns Irvine-based investment banking firm L.H. Friend, Weinress, Frankson & Presson and WestAmerica Investment Group, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based brokerage. Boston Group, founded in 1995 by Robert A. DiMinico, once employed more than 100 brokers. The firm ran into trouble last year when many of the low-priced stocks that it underwrote collapsed, depleting the company’s capital.