Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team and creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, has reportedly been arrested following the Square Enix inside trading investigation.
According to FNN Prime Online, Naka-san, is the lasted suspect in the case, which relates to insider trading regarding a new Dragon Quest game.
Previously, Square Enix employees Daisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki were arrested for acquiring stock in developer Aiming, shortly before the company announced that a new Dragon Quest game was in development at the studio. The pair purchased a reported 47 million yen of stock in Aiming, right before the mobile title was officially announced.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Officer’s Special Investigation Department has now detained Naka as part of the ongoing investigation, who is reported to have purchase 10,000 shares of Aiming stock for about 2.8 million yen prior to Dragon Quest Tact’s announcement.
The belief is that all three suspects may have used insider information knowingly in order to sell the stock again when it increases in value. An official statement from Square Enix reads as follows:
Today, some media outlets reported that the former employees of Square Enix were under investigation for suspected insider trading,” the statement reads.
We have been fully cooperating with requests from the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. As the investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is underway, we will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation.
We deeply regret the great concern this has caused to all concerned. We have dealt with this incident strictly, including internal disciplinary actions taken against the suspected employees.
Naka is no longer involved with Square Enix following his departure last year after the critical and commercial failure of Balan Wonderworld.
[Source – VGC]