Original: A verdict has been reached in Yuji Naka’s insider trading case, and the game developer – known for his previous work on Sonic the Hedgehog and more recently Balan Wonderworld – has been sentenced to prison, but he is unlikely to serve time.
The courts made a final judgement today. The big part of the story is that Naka has been given a prison sentence of two years and six months. However, sine he’ll be seeing a four-year suspension, that should allow him to avoid jailtime. He has also been given a couple of fines of two million and 170 million yen.
The situation with Naka goes back to last December. After it was discovered that Naka had been involved with insider trading, he was arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. Naka had advance knowledge that Aiming was working on the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact, and purchased roughly 10,000 shares of stock from the company. Additional charges were made relating to Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier.
Ultimately it was insider trading under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law. Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki and their acquaintance Fumiaki Suzuki were arrested as well.
Naka originally worked at SEGA for many years and contributed to the original Sonic the Hedgehog games. Later on, he founded Prope which created Let’s Tap, Rodea: The Sky Soldier, and more. Naka would join Square Enix in 2018 and directed Balan Wonderworld.
Update: This post has been updated to clarify that despite the prison sentence, Naka will probably not end up in a jailcell. That’s due to the suspension mentioned above, assuming he avoids further legal trouble during those four years of probation.
