 While he has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for insider trading, Yuji Naka can stay out as long as he behaves himself. For years, Yuji Naka was credited as the main creator of Sonic The Hedgehog. Going forward, though, he'll be referred to as 'Sonic The Hedgehog co-creator and convicted criminal.' As a reminder, Naka made headlines last November when he and two others were accused of insider trading and arrested for it. Between a refusal to deny allegations and an apparent lack of remorse, the prosecution in Naka's case pushed for a two and a half year prison sentence. Today, Naka was found guilty, but he's managed to avoid any jail time. Naka will instead escape with a four year suspended sentence, so as long as he behaves himself for the next four years, and isn't caught committing any more crimes, he won't go to prison. While that must be good news for him, Jiji Press reports that he was ordered to pay two hefty fines that total 173 million yen, which is just under £1 million. This also means it's unlikely he'll find new work in the games industry. Presently, he's still the sole member of Prope, the studio he founded after leaving Sega, but it's hard to imagine anyone else employing him following the ruling. Square Enix will certainly never work with him again, since Naka used his knowledge of its upcoming titles to commit the aforementioned insider trading. Although those bridges were burnt long before any of this anyway. While Naka joined Square Enix for Balan Wonderworld, he left partway through development and later sued Square Enix, claiming to have been forcefully removed from his own project and that's why it turned out as poorly as it did. As far as we can tell, this lawsuit has yet to be resolved (at least publicly) though Naka's criminal sentence won't do him any favours if this winds up going to court too. Balan Wonderworld – would this){kind=link}
While he has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for insider trading, Yuji Naka can stay out as long as he behaves himself.
For years, Yuji Naka was credited as the main creator of Sonic The Hedgehog. Going forward, though, he’ll be referred to as ‘Sonic The Hedgehog co-creator and convicted criminal.’
As a reminder, Naka made headlines last November when he and two others were accused of insider trading and arrested for it.
Between a refusal to deny allegations and an apparent lack of remorse, the prosecution in Naka’s case pushed for a two and a half year prison sentence. Today, Naka was found guilty, but he’s managed to avoid any jail time.
Naka will instead escape with a four year suspended sentence, so as long as he behaves himself for the next four years, and isn’t caught committing any more crimes, he won’t go to prison.