Sonic The Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka has been arrested

Yuji Naka, the former head of Sonic Team and one of the co-creators of Sonic the Hedgehog series has reportedly been arrested in Japan by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, in connection with insider trading charges (thanks, Kotaku).

According to a report from FNN (translated via Google), Naka, 57, is said to have learned “important information” about the free-to-play mobile title, Dragon Quest Tact, which was developed by Square Enix alongside a team called Aiming. Aiming’s involvement of the game was publicly announced in 2020.

It’s alleged that Naka, as an employee of Square Enix in early 2020, bought around 10,000 shares in Aiming worth 2.8 million yen (equivalent to around £16,777 or $20,000) before the company’s involvement with Dragon Quest Tact was announced.

The same report from FNN also claims that former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki (38) and an acquaintance called Fumiaki Suzuki (40) were also arrested on suspicion of insider trading. Eurogamer writes that Sazaki allegedly spent around 20.8 million yen (over £124k/$148k) of shares in Aiming between December 2019 and February 2020. Meanwhile, Sazaki’s acquaintance, Suzuki, reportedly spent 26.4 million yen (over £158k/$188k) on shares in the company at around the same time.

Square Enix issued a statement responding to the situation following the alleged arrests of Sazaki and Suzuki: “Today, some media outlets reported that the former employees of Square Enix were under investigation for suspected insider trading,” it reads (via VGC). “We have been fully cooperating with requests from the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. As the investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is underway, we will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation.

“We deeply regret the great concern this has caused to all concerned. We have dealt with this incident strictly, including internal disciplinary actions taken against the suspected employees.”