Two former employees of Square Enix have been arrested in Tokyo, under suspicion of potential insider trading.
Japanese tech site Automaton reports that Taisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki were arrested for acquiring stock in Japanese developer Aiming, shortly before it was announced that it was working on a new Dragon Quest game.
The two reportedly purchased around ¥47 million ($336,300) of stock in Aiming, just before it was publicly confirmed that it was developing mobile title Dragon Quest Tact.
By purchasing the stock before the announcement, the belief is that the pair may have knowingly used insider information in order to later sell the stock again when its value increased.
Following the arrests, Square Enix made a statement confirming that the pair were former employees and stating that it was working with authorities on the investigation.
“Today, some media outlets reported that the former employees of Square Enix were under investigation for suspected insider trading,” the statement reads.
“We have been fully cooperating with requests from the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. As the investigation by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is underway, we will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation.
“We deeply regret the great concern this has caused to all concerned. We have dealt with this incident strictly, including internal disciplinary actions taken against the suspected employees.”
The company also stated that it had taken measures to prevent a similar situation happening again.
“We have established the proper management system for confidential information and have also set up a system to prevent insider trading, such as the obligation of prior notification when trading the Company’s stock and prohibiting the stock trading of the Company and listed companies that have the business relationship with the Company before important non-public information is disclosed,” it said.