After pleading guilty to insider trading, Yuji Naka today received his sentence, which includes a hefty fine and a suspended jail term if he breaks court orders.
As a quick recap, Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka was hired by Square Enix in 2018 and fired in 2022. After being fired, he posted a series of tweets in April 2022 detailing what he believed to be a wrongful termination. He was then arrested in December 2022 on suspicion of insider trading. Then, in March 2023, Yuji Naka admitted to insider trading in two mobile games in development at Square Enix, Dragon Quest Tact and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. This brings us to today, the details of the sentence.
The Jiji Press reports (loosely translated by Google) that Judge Madoka Hiruta, who oversaw the trial, said Naka had indeed committed insider trading and sentenced Yuji Naka to two years and six months in prison. But there’s a catch: if Naka complies with the conditions set by the court, he will avoid jail time altogether. The sentence is suspended for four years, so if Naka obeys the court’s order for four years, he can avoid any actual jail time.
That’s not to say he wasn’t punished at all, as the courts also imposed a hefty fine totalling ¥173 million ($1.2 million). Judge Hiruta mentioned that the defendant had shown remorse during the trial, so he felt the suspended sentence was appropriate. It’s worth noting that if Naka had served the full sentence handed down by the court, it would have been longer than the lifespan of the Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier server.
Yuji Naka was previously given a sentence on June 1, and the courts “demanded” that “a prison term of 2 years and 6 months, a fine of 2.5 million yen, and a fine of 170 million yen” be given due to Naka having gained “illicit profits from a position significantly more advantageous than general investors, and undermined the fairness of the market.” This is a developing story still, so an update will be provided if more information comes out about this Yuji Naka insider trading saga.
