Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, and most recently the failed Balan Wonderworld has been arrested in Japan by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office, with claims being that he was allegedly participating in insider trading. A report by FNN, and translated by DeepL revealed that Naka was taken in by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office as the third person involved in a chain of insider traders connected to Square-Enix’s Dragon Quest Tact mobile game. The report claims that Naka knew a great deal about the past, present and future of Tact due to his work with Square-Enix in recent years on Balan Wonderworld.
The report is damning. It is claimed that Naka knew about an upcoming announcement that Square-Enix would be collaborating with developer Aiming on Dragon Quest Tact, and consequently, he purchased 2.8 million yen worth of shares (about 10,000 shares in total) in the company. It is then claimed that his intent was to sell the shares after the announcement of Aiming and Square-Enix collaborating was public, expecting the value of the shares in the company to spike following the announcement.
The report from FNN reads,
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office today arrested a new suspect, Yuji Naka, 57, a game creator, in an insider trading case involving information on the development of a new “Dragon Quest” game.
According to the announcement by the Special Investigation Department, the suspect, who was an employee of the game company Square Enix (Square Enix), learned important information about “Dragon Quest Tact,” which was being jointly developed by Square Enix and the online game production company Aiming, around late January 2020.
Before the information was announced, Naka allegedly purchased approximately 10,000 shares of Aiming stock for approximately 2.8 million yen. He was arrested for insider trading under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.
The two suspects, Taisuke Sasaki (38), a former employee of SQUANI, and his acquaintance Fumiaki Suzuki (40), were also arrested yesterday on suspicion of insider trading.
All three of them are believed to have bought shares in Aiming, thinking that if information on “Dragon Quest Tact” was announced, the share price of Aiming would rise. It was not disclosed whether the three had sold out of their shares.
All three have been arrested and are facing charges of insider trading by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office.
This continues Naka’s slippery slope following the poor reception of Balan Wonderworld and his outspoken approach since the game’s release.
