Yuji Naka's insider trading case is now going before the Tokyo District Court, with the former Sonic Team boss standing accused of acquiring stock in Japanese developers Aiming and ATeam before it was publicly announced that both studios were working on projects for his then-employer, Square Enix.
The accusation is that he then intended to resell the stock at a higher price, based on the assumption that the price would rise due to the aforementioned announcements. The games in question were Dragon Quest Tact (Aiming) and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier (ATeam), the latter of which has since been shut down.
In the first trial on March 2nd, 57-year-old Naka admitted to the charges. According to TBS NEWS DIG and NHK News, Naka said:
"There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before it was made public and bought the stock."
Naka rose to fame during his time at Sega, where he was employed between 1984 and 2017. He is most famous for working on the Sonic series, and his Sonic Team internal studio produced a string of titles for Sega, including NiGHTs, Burning Rangers, Billy Hatcher and Rub Rabbits.