Yuji Naka re-arrested over alleged Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier insider trading scheme

Former Sonic Team head and Sonic the Hedgehog programmer Yuji Naka has been arrested again due to alleged insider trading.

This time the arrest relates to potential insider trading relating to confidential knowledge of mobile title Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier.

According to a new report by Asahi the developer, as well as former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki, was arrested for allegedly investing in ATeam Entertainment based on non-public knowledge of Square Enix’s future plans to work with the studio on the Final Fantasy mobile game.

According to Asahi, it’s claimed that Naka was made aware of Square’s plans to develop the game with ATeam prior to its official announcement. Naka would then reportedly purchase around 120,000 shares in the company at a total price of around ¥144.7 million yen ($834,000).

It was alleged at the time of his first arrest that Naka was also implicated in a similar scheme surrounding the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact, developed by Aiming.

It’s alleged that before Dragon Quest Tact was announced, Naka – who was working on Balan Wonderworld for Square Enix at the time – purchased approximately 10,000 shares of Aiming stock for around ¥2.8 million ($20,000).

In response to Naka’s first arrest, and that of former Square Employees Taisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki, the Final Fantasy publisher committed last month to working with authorities on the matter.

“Today, some media outlets reported that the former employees of Square Enix were under investigation for suspected insider trading,” the statement read at the time.

Further reading

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Yuji Naka has reportedly been arrested as part of the Square Enix insider trading investigation

Two former Square Enix employees have already been arrested

“We have been fully cooperating with requests from the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. As the investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is underway, we will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation.

“We deeply regret the great concern this has caused to all concerned. We have dealt with this incident strictly, including internal disciplinary actions taken against the suspected employees.”