Tonight, the results of the Yuji Naka trial were revealed. This comes after a long history involving multiple arrests surrounding insider trading, which Naka plead guilty to on both accounts.
His insider trading cases involved Dragon Quest Tact and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. Naka will serve four years of probation, alongside the requirement of paying two fines of ¥2M & ¥170M, respectively. If he fails to do this or slips up during probation, he will be sentenced to two years and six months of jail time. This was the result of this ongoing trial involving Yuji Naka.
Yuji Naka has been sentenced to 2 years, 6 months prison, suspended for 4 years, with two fines of ~¥2M & ~¥170M?? https://t.co/Q12fLtiYN1
— GSK | https://cohost.org/gosokkyu (@gosokkyu) July 7, 2023
When pleading guilty back in March 2023, Naka stated, “There is no doubt that I knew about the existence of these games before they were publicly announced and bought stocks”. As for how much Naka spent, he purchased roughly ¥144.7M of Ateam stock before the announcement of Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier was made. Additionally, he bought ¥2.8M of Aiming stock prior to the release of Dragon Quest Tact.
He was with Square Enix through the development of Balan Wonderland, a notorious title throughout online communities. The game was released to very critical reviews, citing immense technical problems and frustrating controls.
Naka is best known as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, serving as the President of the Sonic Team from its initial release all the way to 2006, when he left SEGA. After departing, he created his own game studio called Prope. Here, he developed smaller titles for the Nintendo Wii and mobile devices. In 2018, he formed the Balan Company with Square Enix to create a brand new platformer for the company. That game was Balan Wonderland. Naka is now currently 57 years old.
It’s unclear if Naka will stay true to the terms he was given to remain on probation for four years, but we will be sure to update you if those are broken, and he gets sentenced to prison.
