Sonic the Hedgehog creator and former Square Enix employee Yuji Naka (57) was arrested by prosecutors in Japan on Friday, accused of insider trading in shares of the video game production company Aiming.
According to Japanese news agency FNN, Naka is accused of purchasing 10,000 shares of the company for around 2.8 million yen (around $30,000 at the time) in January 2020 after receiving insider information about Dragon Quest Tact, a mobile phone game that was being jointly developed by Aiming and Square Enix, where Naka was employed at the time.
Naka was let go by Square in June 2021, shortly after the launch of his poorly-received game Balan Wonderworld. In early 2022, Naka tweeted that he was actually removed as director of the game six months before it was launched. He has since filed a lawsuit against Square in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
