GungHo Online Entertainment, known as the developer of Puzzle & Dragons and global publisher of Nihon Falcom’s Trails in the Sky remake series – has announced that an employee it had previously fired over misconduct has been arrested.
As reported by The Sankei Shimbun, Japanese police arrested Takanori Kikuchi, the former general manager of GungHo’s systems division, on July 8 on suspicion of breach of trust. Kikuchi is accused of causing the company financial losses by placing fictitious work orders to himself.
According to the police, he allegedly created an account under a false name on an online crowdsourcing platform, posing as a sole proprietor, and then placed fictitious work orders in GungHo’s name, such as requests to “inspect product defects.” Between January and December 2022, he reportedly had the company transfer around 40 million yen in cash (around $246 thousand USD) across 12 transactions, disguised as outsourcing fees.
While this arrest involves only allegations related to acts committed in 2022, the police believe Kikuchi had been embezzling company funds using similar methods from 2017 to 2025. GungHo’s internal investigation from back in August 2025 suggested that losses it suffered from Kikuchi’s alleged misconduct totaled approximately 346 million yen or $2.35 million USD. This led to the employee being dismissed and GungHo’s CEO and executives accepting pay reduction for three months to take responsibility. Following the arrest, Kikuchi has admitted to the allegations.
