"the Father of Sonic" Nakayusi faces two and a half years in prison for insider trading

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizens for the delivery of clues on the way! Late last year, game developer Yuji Nakaji and former Square Enix employee Taisuke Sasaki were formally charged after being arrested on suspicion of insider trading, CTOnews.com reported on June 3.

Prosecutors at the Tokyo District Court issued a preliminary verdict on Thursday, ordering Nakayuji to serve two years and six months in prison, fining 2.5 million yen (CTOnews.com Note: about 127000 yuan) and an additional fine of 170 million yen (currently about 8.636 million yuan), Abema Times reported. "Nakayuji has no intention of repentance."

The defense of Nakayusi has asked for a reduction of the fine and a suspended sentence, and the final decision is expected to be announced on July 7.

According to previous reports from CTOnews.com, the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office has confirmed that Yuji Nakayu has confidential information about Square's plans to develop final Fantasy derivative works "final Fantasy 7 first Warrior" with mobile developer ATeam Entertainment.

Using this information, the two men each bought nearly 91000 shares and 120000 Ateam shares in advance, and Taisuke Sasaki not only bought a lot of shares himself, but also told another acquaintance about the partnership between the two companies, who spent nearly 1180 million yen on nearly 10,000 Ateam shares.

▲ Japanese police arrested three people, including Nakayuji, in November 2022, accusing them of insider trading. In December 2022, Nakayuji was arrested again in another insider trading case.

At the time of his first arrest, Square Enix had publicly pledged to co-operate with the authorities on the matter. "We deeply regret that this matter has aroused great concern from all parties concerned. We have dealt with this incident strictly, including internal disciplinary action against suspected employees."