Released in 1991, Sonic the Hedhehog was a huge success and became one of the iconic characters of the gaming industry along with the games that followed. Yuji Naka, one of the creators of the series and the leader of the Team Sonic team for a long time after being part of the team since the first game, was arrested in Japan. His crime is to leak information about an announcement and to play the stock market.
Famous game producer Yuki Naka arrested
Yuji Naka and several other producers, including some Sega employees and a Square Enix employee, were reportedly arrested. The reason for the arrest is shown as leaking information from the inside and playing money in the stock market in the accuracy of this information.
The basis of this news, which is described as a scandal and has just emerged, dates back to 2020. In 2020, it was stated that a studio called Aiming would be the developer of a new Dragon Quest game. Taisuke Sazaki, a 38-year-old Square Enix employee who previously worked on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games, allegedly heard about the announcement earlier and bought shares of the company without the announcement with a friend. With the announcement, it was hoped that a big profit would be made with the rise of the shares.
Naka, 57, known as one of the main creators of Sonic the Hedgehog, has reportedly been arrested on a similar charge. According to FNN, Naka is also accused of knowing about the Aiming deal before it becomes public and taking advantage of this opportunity to buy 10,000 shares of the company.
Yuji Naka and those involved have been arrested by the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating. Naka allegedly bought shares worth 2.8 million Yen, or about $20,000. Sazaki is accused of buying shares worth 26.4 million yen, or about $188,000. Authorities have yet to say whether any of the three people arrested so far still own the shares or whether they were sold for profit ahead of the investigation.
