Games
Yuji Naka pleads guilty to misusing confidential information with Square Enix games
At the end of last year we heard the news of the arrest of Yuji Nakaformer head of Sonic Team and main programmer of sonic the hedgehogby alleged abuse of confidential information with Square Enix games: he was accused of having taken advantage of his knowledge of company projects (such as the recently closed battle royale for mobile Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier and Dragon Quest Touchalso for smartphones) with the aim of buying shares before they were officially announced.
“There is no doubt that he knew the facts about video games before they were made public and bought shares”
Today took place first trial of the case in the Tokyo 2nd District Court. There they are trying to conclude whether Yuji Naka has violated the Japanese Exchange and Financial Instruments law. For the moment, the little information that has come out of the process reveals that Naka himself has pleaded guilty of using that confidential information for his own benefit: “There is no doubt that he knew the facts about video games before they were made public and bought shares,” he has declared.
Yuji Naka seems to be pleading guilty in his insider trading case. At the first trial held at the Tokyo District Court, Naka stated, “There is no doubt that I learned the facts about the game before it was announced and bought the stock.” https://t.co/JT5XGtDfAN— Alex Kraus 🇯🇵🔙 (@alexfkraus) March 2, 2023
What exactly is Yuji Naka accused of?
Yuji Naka He is not the only one arrested during the investigation of this case: Taisuke Sazaki, a former Square Enix employee, is also accused of collaborating with the designer. Both will have bought 120,000 shares of Square Enix after learning that ATeam Entertainment, a development studio for Final Fantasy VII The First SoldierI was working on a battle royale of the saga for mobiles. The movement exceeded one million euros and investigators suspect that his intention was to sell the shares when their market value rose after the official announcement.
In the case of Dragon Quest Touch the number is much less, although there are also more people involved (specifically Taisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki). The respect of this project is said that Yuji Naka bought 10,000 shares in Aiming, responsible for the development of the mobile game, with a value of 19,000 euros.
