Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka amongst former Square Enix personnel arrested over Dragon Quest-associated insider trading
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Fuji News Network(opens in new tab) is now reporting that Yuji Naka, co-author of Sonic the Hedgehog and director of Balan Wonderworld, has been arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in connection with the insider trading case. Like the 2 formerly arrested suspects, Naka is accused of purchasing stocks in Aiming Co before it became revealed that the developer become taking up a profitable agreement to make a Dragon Quest cell recreation. In Naka’s case, he allegedly bought around 10,000 shares, kind of worth 2.Eight million yen. It has not been disclosed whether or not Naka or the alternative suspects bought their shares.
Original tale: On November 17, Japanese outlet Automaton(opens in new tab) reported that Square Enix employees were arrested by using Tokyo Police on suspicion of insider buying and selling. The arrest is on the subject of cash they invested in a third-birthday celebration developer, Aiming Co, in advance of the general public monitor that it would work on the cellular Dragon Quest by-product, Dragon Quest Tact(opens in new tab), which launched in 2020.
Automaton identifies the personnel as Fumiaki Suzuki(opens in new tab) and Taisuke Sasaki(opens in new tab) (alternately Sazaki). The two guys have technical manufacturing credits and special thank you on a number of high-profile Square Enix video games, consisting of Dragon Quest 11, Final Fantasy 14, and NieR Automata
Sasaki and Suzuki had been allegedly privy to Aming Co’s unannounced collaboration with Square Enix via internal assets after they purchased forty-seven million yen (around $335,000) really worth of Aming Co inventory. Given the Dragon Quest series’ big popularity, specifically in Japan, that investment would possibly have a lucrative payoff, with Aiming Co’s price growing as soon because the high-profile assignment changed into introduced.
The employer stated it’ll “fully cooperate with the research to clarify the statistics.” Square Enix additionally stated that it’s miles “taking disciplinary motion towards the previous employees,” and went on to claim that it’ll fortify its inner measures to locate and save you insider trading via personnel.
$335,000 is truly a life-converting amount of cash for a character, but it strikes me as a paltry amount in the global of high finance and billion greenback videogame studio acquisitions. I can nearly consider an Office Space-style situation with two mid-level Square Enix personnel arising with a scheme to make some extra money within the shadow of corporate income. Whatever the case may be, that is a developing story, and so far the primary example I know of is where Dragon Quest became concerned in an alleged monetary crime.
