Sonic the Hedgehog’s co-creator and former boss of Sonic Team, Yuji Naka, has been sentenced to a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined over $1 million for insider trading during his time atSquare Enix.
By far one of the most surprising stories of 2022 was whenYuji Naka was arrested for insider trading during his time working at Square Enix, after having allegedly bought 10,000 shares in Aiming, the developer behind the at-the-time-unannounced Dragon Quest Tact mobile game. Naka’s shares were reportedly worth around $20,000.
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Yuji Naka was originally indicted for insider trading towards the end of December 2022, but after months of deliberation in court, his sentence has finally been decided. As reported by IGN, Yuji Naka was found guilty of violating Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act for insider trading and has been served a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence that’s been suspended by four years.
This essentially means that Naka is on probation for four years and risks prison time of up to two-and-a-half years if he breaks the rules of his probation or if he commits any further crimes within that four-year timeframe. Although it’s possible that Naka avoids prison time, there’s one part of his sentencing that he won’t be avoiding - a hefty bill.
After charging Naka with the suspended prison sentence, Judge Madoka Hiruta also charged him with two fines - one for ¥2 million ($14,000) and another for ¥170 million ($1.1 million), adding up to a staggering 1.2 million in insider trading fees. Unlike the prison sentence, these fines are set and something that Naka will no doubt have to pay.
The outcome of the trial isn’t surprising consideringNaka previously pled guilty to the charges back in March of this year, having reportedly said, “There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before it was made public and bought the stock”, while in court. That just left it up to the judges to decide the parameters of his punishment.
Judge Madoka Hiruta said this while sentencing Naka, “He was known as one of the world’s most famous game developers, and had the authority to access joint development information. It has damaged the fairness and soundness of the stock market and the trust of investors”.
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