Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka fined $1.2 million and given suspended sentence for insider trading

Sonic co-creator Yuji Naku was found guilty of insider trading, but for now he will avoid deprivation

freedom.The Tokyo District Court found Naku guilty of violating Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act by buying shares based on inside information, according to Japanese news agency Jiji Press.

What is known

Judge sentenced him to 30 monthssuspended sentence for four years. This means that he will avoid imprisonment if he adheres to the conditions set by the court and does not break the law during this period. Naka also received two fines totaling 173 million yen (equivalent to about $1.2 million). Naka himself pleaded guilty.

After his arrest in November 2022, it becameit is known that Naka, who was working on the Balan Wonderworld game for Square Enix at the time, learned about the development of a new Dragon Quest mobile game called Dragon Quest Tact from Japanese developer Aiming even before its official announcement. Using this information, he purchased about 10,000 shares for a total of $20,000 with the intention of selling them when the game was announced and the value of the shares increased.