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11-17-2023 3:08pm
Former Needham Police Officer Fined $25K and Sentenced for Insider Trading
Darlene Cancell
Editor
A former Needham Police officer was sentenced to one year of supervised release with home confinement for the first six months, and a $25,000 fine, for conspiring to trade on inside information about a Massachusetts company's planned acquisition of a semiconductor company in California, announced Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Invesgiation, Boston Division, on Thursday, November 16, 2023.
Sixty year-old David Forte of Acton, and two co-conspirators, were charged in January 2022. In June 2023, a federal jury found Mr. Forte guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney, beginning around June 2016, Mr. Forte obtained non-public information from his brother, who was a senior executive at the Massachusetts based semiconductor company Analog Devices, Inc., regarding its upcoming acquisition of Linear Technology Corp., a semiconductor company based in Milpitas, California.
Mr. Forte passed the stock tip to co-conspirators John Younis and Gregory Manning, proposing that they purchase Linear securities and share their trading profits with him, as he did not want to purchase them in his own name, due to his brother's role in the acquiring company.
Mr. Younis and Mr. Manning purchased Linear securities in advance of the acquisition. When the acquisition was announced publicly, and Linear's share price increased by 30 percent, Mr. Younis and Mr. Manning sold their Linear securities. They paid Mr. Forte a share of the profits.
Mr. Younis pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and in June 2022 he was sentenced to one month of home detention and two years of probation. Mr. Manning pleaded guilty last month, in October. He is scheduled to be sentenced in early January 2024.
