A Manhattan lawyer was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for helping link up hedge-fund traders with lawyers willing to provide inside information about mergers and acquisitions.

US District Judge Richard Sullivan also ordered Jason Goldfarb to pay a $32,500 fine — the amount he was paid for his role in the scheme — and to forfeit more than $1 million, the amount traders made with illegal tips that Goldfarb had helped arrange.

The judge said a prison sentence was necessary to deter others from contributing to a perception that the securities markets are rigged and that “sophisticated, powerful people are bribing and stealing information that assures them of profits.”

Goldfarb, 33, was arrested in fall 2009 as part of an investigation that resulted in more than two dozen arrests and convictions.