He wanted to overtake everyone, like one of his creations, but he tripped on the carpet. One of the designers of the famous video game character Sonic, a 1990s blue hedgehog known to move at supersonic speeds, has been arrested in Japan for insider trading. He is accused of using information that has not yet been published to speculate in the stock market.
The allegations against 57-year-old Yuji Naka by the prosecution date back to 2020, when he was working for Square Enix, the Japanese game publisher behind the world famous Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest video game series. Prosecutors accuse Yuji Naka of buying shares in another developer, Aiming, knowing that the latter is working with Square Enix on a new smartphone game. The information has not yet been made public.
Two more former Square Enix employees arrested
According to a document seen by AFP, Yuji Naka bought 10,000 Aiming shares in January 2020 for 2.8 million yen (€19,400 at current price). Shares of Aiming, which were worth less than 300 yen (about 2 euros) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in January 2020, jumped to more than 1,000 yen (about 10 euros) in July of that year at the exit of the “Dragon Market”. Quest Tact, developed by Square Enix.
Yuji Naka was arrested last Friday. The day before, two more former employees of Square Enix were arrested for similar facts. For their part, they are suspected of buying shares in Aiming for a total of 47.2 million yen (327,000 euros).
On social media, fans of Yuji Naka expressed their surprise and disappointment. – Tell me it’s not true. He brought Sonic to life… I feel so sad,” one Twitter user wrote. “He has worked on so many great games. So disappointing,” complained another.
Source: Le Parisien
I am John Casanova. I am an author at 24 news recorder and mostly cover economy news. I have a great interest in the stock market and have been writing about it for many years. I am also interested in real estate and have written several articles on the subject. I am a very experienced investor and have a lot of knowledge to share with others.
