Yuji Naka, former head of Sonic Team, detained for insider trading

Yuji Naka, former head of Sonic Team, detained for insider trading

According to reports from outside of Japan, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has detained Yuji Naka. This week, a case involving insider trading has been circulating, and it seems Naka is now implicated.

Insider trading detailed

Taisuke Sazaki, a Square Enix employee, and his friend Fumiaki Suzuki were detained for illegally obtaining shares of Aiming, as it was reported earlier. Aiming and Square Enix collaborate on mobile games such Gestalt Odin and Dragon Quest Tact. Before it was officially announced that Sazaki and Suzuki would be collaborating with Square Enix on Dragon Quest Tact, they were detained on suspicion of acquiring around 47 million yen’s worth of shares in Aiming.

Coming back to Naka, it is now said that he purchased around 10,000 shares of Aiming stock in January 2020 after being informed that Dragon Quest Tact was in development. His detention is once again a result of insider trading in violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.

Oftentimes, Naka is listed as one of the designers of Sonic the Hedgehog. He contributed to the early games in the franchise before rising to lead Sonic Team. Following his 2006 departure from SEGA, Naka founded his own firm, Prope, before joining Square Enix in 2018.

Naka oversaw Square Enix’s badly reviewed Balan Wonderworld game. He allegedly quit the firm last year, and a few months ago, he filed a lawsuit against it. So things seem to be going great …