Yuji Naka, Sonic's co-creator and the man behind ill-fated platformer Balan Wonderworld, has been found guilty of insider trading, but will avoid prison for now.
Naka was first arrested back in November 2022 following reports of alleged insider trading at Square Enix. He pleaded guilty in March, and then, in June, the developer was sentenced to serve two and a half years in jail, with a final judgement in July.
At this time, Naka was additionally fined twice for ¥2.5m and ¥170m (just under £1m total), with his defence seeking a suspended sentence and to lower the fines. They claimed Naka "accidentally saw information that was extremely unrelated to [his] work". However, prosecutors said Naka "showed no signs of remorse" for his actions.