David Hobson, 48, a former investment adviser with Oppenheimer & Co. pleaded guilty to charges that he engaged in an insider trading scheme based on information supplied by a childhood friend working at Pfizer.  The friend, Michael Maciocio, who was a director of chemical research and development at Pfizer, had pleaded  guilty in May as part of a deal to cooperate with prosecutors.

According to federal prosecutors, Hobson, a Providence, RI, resident, did his trading while he was at RBC Capital Markets and continued at Oppenheimer & Co.  He executed trades in Medivation, Ardea Biosciences and Furiex Pharmaceuticals between 2008 and 2014. While Maciocio was not typically given the identity of a company in a potential deal, with Hobson's help he performed research to discern its identity.  After identifying the company, Maciocio then passed the information to Hobson, his stockbroker, who executed trades in accounts belonging to himself, Maciocio, and clients of Oppenheimer and RBC.

Trades by Hobson resulted in illicit profits of $180,000 for himself, $40,000 for Maciocio and $150,000 for certain of Hobson's clients.  Under a plea agreement, Hobson will forfeit almost $386,000 and not appeal any prison sentence of 2-1/2 years or less.