Sonic co-creator and Balan Wonderworld director Yuji Naka has been found guilty of insider trading, with the Tokyo District Court slapping him with a huge $1.2 million fine and a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, suspended for four years.
It’s not far off the punishment prosecutors were gunning for earlier last month, the only exception being the four-year suspended sentence which will see Naka avoid any actual jail time unless he violates any of the court’s conditions or has any other nasty run-ins with the law during that time. According to a translated summary from SEGAbits, Naka was said to have shown “remorse” which led to the suspended sentence, despite the prosecution insisting otherwise. The fine remains largely the same though, with Japanese outlet Jiji reporting that he’s been issued with a ¥2 million (roughly $14,000) fine plus a further ¥171 million (around $1.2 million) penalty.
Naka was originally arrested back in November 2022 on suspicion of insider trading while at Square Enix, alongside two other employees. He was accused of buying shares in Aiming Imc. before its collaboration with Square Enix on the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact, before being arrested again a month later for the exact same thing, except this time for Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier and developer ATeam.
The developer all but admitted he was guilty on the first day in court in March this year, saying “There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before it was made public and bought the stock,” so his sentencing comes as no surprise. Now it’s up to Naka to pay the fine and stay on his best behaviour until 2027, lest he ends up behind bars.