Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Receives Suspended Prison Sentence for Insider Trading

Yuji Naka, co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, has been given a suspended prison sentence and fined $1.2 million for insider trading. Naka was involved in two separate incidents of insider trading while working at Square Enix in 2020. In one case, he and two co-workers purchased shares in a game developer before the partnership was publicly announced, and in the other case, he allegedly bought shares in a studio that Square Enix planned to partner with. The judge's ruling applies to both cases. Naka joined Sega in 1983 and later joined Square Enix, where he worked on the game Balan Wonderworld before being removed from the team and filing a lawsuit against the company.