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Yuji Naka its to Insider Trading Charges in Tokyo Court

Yuji Naka itted to the charges against him of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act in his first trial hearing in a Tokyo district court on Thursday.

The prosecution said in an opening statement that Naka allegedly bought 130,000 shares and made 20 million yen ($146,600) in profits after finding out about new games in the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office first game in collaboration with Square Enix.

The same prosecutors office arrested Naka a second time on December 7, on suspicion of insider trading, or buying/selling stock on the basis of nonpublic information. While still at Square Enix, Naka allegedly invested in Ateam, developers of the company's Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier mobile game, prior to the game's announcement. Former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sasaki was also once again arrested for the same reason. They are suspected of purchasing about 120,000 shares of Ateam for about 144.7 million yen ($1 million).

Naka revealed in April 2022 that he had filed a lawsuit against Square Enix for supposedly removing him as the director of the Balan Wonderworld game six months before the game launched.

Naka worked for 22 years at Sonic Team and lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega Genesis. He also worked on such games as Nights into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online while at Sega.

Naka is the president and CEO of the PROPE game development company, which he founded in 2006 after leaving Sega. At PROPE, he worked on such games as Fishing Resort, Buddy Monster, and Legend of Coin.

Source: NHK via Siliconera