News
2 Square Enix Employees Arrested for Insider Trading
posted on by Alex Mateo
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrested two former Square Enix employees on suspicion of insider trading, or buying/selling stock on the basis of nonpublic information. Around November 2019, while working at Square Enix, Taisuke Sasaki had learned that the company and Aiming were developing the Dragon Quest Tact smartphone game. Before the game's announcement, Sasaki and his aquaintance Fumiaki Suzuki purchased about 162,000 shares of Aiming for a total of about 47.2 million yen (about US$337,000).
Square Enix announced on Thursday that it is cooperating with requests from the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office to investigate the suspected insider trading. The company will take preventive measures by further tightening internal regulations and conducting more thorough employee education programs.
Dragon Quest Tact launched for iOS and Android devices in Japan in July 2020. The game launched in the WEST. in January 2021. The free-to-play game includes in-app purchases. Aiming developed the game, and Square Enix is credited with planning and production.
Update: Fuji TV and TBS reported on Friday that the second former Square Enix employee arrested was not Fumiaki Suzuki (who is Sasaki's acquaintance) , but game director Yuji Naka.
Sources: Square Enix, FNN via Otakomu
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history