Former adviser sentenced to six months for insider trading ​

A former broker and registered investment adviser in Providence, R.I., has been sentenced to six months in prison for his role in an insider-trading scheme involving a pharmaceutical company where his friend and co-conspirator worked.

David Hobson, who pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud in October, engaged in the scheme from May 2008 through April 2014, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where the sentence was handed down. He left the industry last year.

The website of the law firm of Fitapelli Kurta said that Mr. Hobson had spent 22 years in the securities industry. He worked most recently at Oppenheimer & Co. in Providence from 2010 to 2016. He also worked at RBC Capital Markets in Providence and New York; Tucker Anthony in Boston; Gruntal & Co. in New York; and Dickinson & Co. in Des Moines, Iowa.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, Mr. Hobson was sentenced to two years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $385,664.39. Last May, his friend and co-conspirator Michael Maciocio, 47, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and two counts of securities fraud. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

According to the U.S. attorney, Mr. Maciocio traded on his own behalf on insider information and tipped Mr. Hobson, who traded for himself, Mr. Maciocio, and on behalf of some of his other investment advisory clients.