Two former Square Enix workers and Yuji Naka are accused of purchasing shares before news of a Dragon Quest mobile game was made public.
Along with two other former Square Enix workers, Yuji Naka, the designer of the renowned Sega video game Sonic the Hedgehog, was detained in Japan today on suspicion of insider trading, according to Variety.
Aiming, a firm that produces online games, and Square Enix, a game developer, are at the center of the issue since they said in February 2020 that they were going to make a new Dragon Quest mobile game.
Taisuke Sazaki, a former Square Enix employee who worked on the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts video games, is said to have learned about the deal before it was made public
and teamed up with another ex-Square Enix worker to purchase a huge number of shares in Aiming between December 2019 and February 2020, according to Kotaku.
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Since his arrest, Naka appears to have also been engaging in insider trading fraud. According to a report by FNN, Naka allegedly paid 2.8 million yen (about $20,000) for 10,000 shares of Aiming's stock before to the company's announcement.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has detained the two ex-employees as well as Naka, but it is yet uncertain whether any of them sold their stock.
While Naka gained fame for developing the well-known blue, brisk hedgehog, he had previously collaborated with Square Enix on the mediocre 2021 game Balan Wonderworld.
Naka left the company in the early months of 2022 after being relieved of his duties as director of the game. Later, he filed a lawsuit against Square Enix,