Sonic & Balan Wonderworld Creator Yuji Naka Reportedly Arrested During Square Enix Insider Trading Investigation

Yuji Naka – the co-creator of Sonic and the more recent release Balan Wonderworld – has reportedly been arrested during an ongoing Square Enix insider trading investigation.

This follows the news two Square Enix employees – Taisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki – were both arrested for acquiring stock in Japanese game development company ‘Aiming’ prior to the announcement of a new Dragon Quest title on mobile.

Sazaki and Suzuki allegedly purchased around ¥47 million ($336,300) of stock in developer Aiming. Yuji Naka has also been accused of having insider information – purchasing 10,000 shares of Aiming stock for roughly ¥2.8 million ($20,000) before the same announcement.

Square Enix has issued a statement – revealing it’s working with authorities on the investigation and taking appropriate actions against the suspected employees:

“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.”

Since the launch of Balan Wonderworld last year, Yuji Naka has also been involved in a lawsuit case with Square Enix, after he was removed from the game as the director “about half a year before release” in his words.