Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka is arrested again for another insider trading fraud

Yuji Naka, the co-creator of Sonic and director of Balan Wonderworld, has been arrested once more for insider trading, only a few weeks after his initial detention.

Along with two other Square Enix employees, Fumiaki Suzuki and Taisuke Sazaki, Naka was first detained in mid-November. Prior to the announcement of the partnership of game developer Aiming Inc. with Square Enix for the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact, the three were charged with purchasing shares in Aiming Inc. Naka is said to have bought about 10,000 shares for about 2.8 million yen (about $20,000 USD), though it is uncertain if he sold them off after the announcement.

Naka is currently being charged with insider trading in relation to another Square Enix game. The developer has been re-arrested alongside Sazaki, according to reports from Asahi and VGC, for allegedly having secret knowledge of another mobile game, Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier. Similar to the Dragon Quest Tact incident, Naka is said to have known of Square Enix’s intentions to work with developer ATeam before the news broke. He is alleged to have paid 144.7 million yen (about $1 million USD) for about 120,000 shares in the mobile studio. According to reports, Sazaki paid 105 million yen for 91,000 shares. The Asahi article says a third unnamed person was informed of the collaboration and allegedly bought about 10,000 shares for 11.8 million yen.

[Source]: VGC: Yuji Naka re-arrested over alleged Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier insider trading scheme – [Archive] – [Screenshot]. Asahi: FF開発でもインサイダー取引か　スクエニ元社員ら再逮捕 – [Archive] – [Screenshot].