Sonic the Hedgehog Co-Creator Yuji Naka Arrested for Alleged Dragon Quest Insider Trading

 

Fuji News Network reported today that the former head of Sonic Team at SEGA and one of the creators of the beloved Sonic the Hedgehog character and franchise Yuji Naka has been arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in connection to an insider trading ring centered around DRAGON QUEST TACT, a free to play mobile game that was published by his current employer Square Enix and developed by Aiming.

 

This comes as two others were arrested yesterday on suspicion of insider trading: 38-year-old Taisuke Sasaki who was a former employee at Square Enix and his acquaintance, 40-year-old Fumiaki Suzuki. It is alleged that the two had both purchased 162,000 shares of Aiming for about 47.2 million yen ahead of the public announcement of DRAGON QUEST TACT.

 

Yuji Naka is said to have bought 10,000 shares of Aiming for about 2.8 million yen ahead of when information on the game and development was announced back in January 2020. 

 

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According to the special investigations unit, Naka and the other two learned the information on the game while working for Square Enix and have all been arrested under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. The unit claims that all three of them believed that the shares would increase once the announcement was made, though haven’t confirmed whether or not the shares were cashed out.

 

DRAGON QUEST TACT was released in Japan in July 2020 for mobile devices, expanding to international audiences in January 2021. 

 

Source: Fuji News Network

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.