Yuji Naka, one of the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog and the president of Sega‘s Sonic Team for 16 years, has been sentenced and fined for insider trading in his time with Square Enix.
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The report from Jiji Press (via Video Games Chronicle) stated that Naka has been given a a suspended sentence of two years and six months in prison, with four years probation. As well as this, he faces two fines totalling $1.2million (£935k).
Naka committed the crime with fellow Square Enix employees Taisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki in order to secure advantageous shares in developers Aiming and Ateam, based on information that had not been publicised about their games Dragon Quest Tact and Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier.
Balan Wonderworld. Credit: Square Enix
In November 2022, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrested Naka and charged him with violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of 2006 for his $20,000 (£16k) shares in Aiming. Then, one month after that, it was discovered that he had bought $384,000 (£299k) worth of shares in Ateam ahead of the announcement of Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier.
“There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before it was made public and bought the stock,” said Naka in his trial at the Tokyo District Court in March 2023.
Naka started at Square Enix in 2018 to spearhead the subsidiary developer Balan Company. Balan Company’s debut title was Balan Wonderworld. However, it was a critical and commercial flop. Naka accused Square Enix of sabotaging the game’s potential in a lawsuit filed in 2022 through its decision to take Naka off of the project and he claimed his concerns were ignored by the publisher.
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