Ex-Square Enix Employee Arrested for Alleged Insider Trading

Tokyo, Nov. 17 (Jiji Press)--The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad on Thursday arrested a former Square Enix Co. employee and an acquaintance of his for alleged insider trading based on information about a new game.

The former employee, Taisuke Sazaki, 38, and the acquaintance, Fumiaki Suzuki, 40, are accused of violating the financial instruments and exchange law.

Sazaki is suspected of buying some 72,000 shares in game maker Aiming Inc. <3911> for about 20.8 million yen between December 2019 and February 2020, after obtaining in November 2019 information about a smartphone-based online game being developed jointly by Square Enix and Aiming.

He is also suspected of sharing the information with Suzuki, who purchased around 90,000 shares in Aiming for roughly 26.4 million yen.

The smartphone game, "Dragon Quest Tact," planned and produced by Square Enix and developed by Aiming, was released in July 2020.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]