On August 7, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office announced the re-arrest of Taisuke Sasaki (39) and Yuji Naka (57), both former employees of Square Enix, a major video game software company, for insider trading based on undisclosed development information on the Final Fantasy series as well as the popular Dragon Quest video game series. Both former employees of the major video game software company, were re-arrested on suspicion of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office announced today.
In February 2021, Square Enix and game production company Ateam (Nagoya, Japan) announced that they would jointly develop the smartphone game “Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier”. According to the announcement, the two suspects purchased Ateam shares before the information was made public, after learning of the two companies’ decision to form a business alliance. The suspect Sasaki is suspected of having purchased a total of 91,000 shares for approximately 105 million yen (around 762,940.50 USD), and the suspect Naka is suspected of having purchased a total of 120,000 shares for approximately 144.7 million yen (around 1,051,404.67 USD). The Sasaki suspect is also alleged to have informed an acquaintance, who also purchased a total of approximately 10,000 shares (11.8 million yen, roughly 85,719.06). The two suspects earned a combined profit of several hundred million yen.
Source: Asahi
