3 men including a Needham police officer arrested for insider trading scheme

BOSTON — A Needham Police Officer and two others were arrested Wednesday for allegedly conspiring to trade on inside information about a Massachusetts company’s planned acquisition of a California semiconductor company.

David Forte, 58, of Acton; John Younis, 59, of Bristol, R.I.; and Gregory Manning, 59, of Needham, were slated to appear in Boston federal court Wednesday afternoon to each face charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Mass.

Officer Forte has been with the Needham Police Department since January 2005.

“Today, we were informed that Officer David Forte was arrested for alleged securities fraud. He has been placed on paid administrative leave pending further information surrounding the allegations,” said Needham Police Chief John Schlittler.

According to the attorney’s office, beginning in or around June 22, 2016, Forte - an officer with the Needham Police Department - obtained material non-public information from a close relative who is a senior executive at Analog Devices, Inc., a Norwood-based semiconductor company, about Analog’s planned acquisition of Linear Technology Corp., a semiconductor company based in Milpitas, Calif.

Forte allegedly passed the information to two close friends, Manning and Younis, who purchased shares of Linear stock in the week leading up to the public announcement of the acquisition on July 26, 2016.

Younis also allegedly purchased call options -which are a bet that the price of a stock will increase prior to the expiration of the option - and tipped a business associate to purchase Linear shares as well.

After the deal was announced, Manning, Younis, and Younis’ associate allegedly sold their Linear securities at a profit, and Manning paid Forte a kickback in appreciation for Forte’s stock tip, said the attorney’s office.

The charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. According to the attorney’s office, sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

No additional details have been released.

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