“Lack of probable cause”
The Philippine Department of Justice has dismissed one fraud case levied against Japanese billionaire and casino magnate Kazuo Okada.
According to GGRAsia, the DOJ tossed a claim related to a US$7 million contract to supply LED fittings for Okada Manila, the integrated resort named after Okada in Manila’s Entertainment City casino zone. Those light fittings, supplied by Aruze Philippines Manufacturing Inc., started to fail within a few weeks after the property opened in March 2017.
The case was first filed in January 2018 by Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Universal Entertainment and promoter of Okada Manila. TRLEI alleged that the contract went to Aruze under pressure from Okada and Kengo Takeda, then chief technology officer for the subsidiary. The lawsuit also named Aruze and its president Tetsuya Yokota as defendants.
Assistant State Prosecutor Alejandro Daguiso said TRLEI failed to prove a conspiracy by Okada and his associates. “We find that there is no probable cause to conclude that criminal fraud occurred, absent any additional evidence that can refute the assertion that the complainant’s officers actually knew about the involvement” of a third party for the production of the LED strips, said the DOJ decision.
He added that the case “appears to be a business decision gone wrong, and said the “lack of any due diligence on the part of the complainant” means the defendants could pursue “civil liability for possible damages.”
The latest ruling upheld a May 2018 decision by the prosecutor of that also dismissed the complaint for lack of probable cause.
The dismissal of charges is by no means an end to Okada’s current legal problems. He still faces another fraud case related to allegations that he misappropriated millions from TRLEI. And according to a report last week in Asia Gaming Brief, Philippine authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the tycoon on embezzlement charges, but Okada left the Philippines on January 18 and his present whereabouts are unknown.
“Frankly, we don’t know where he is,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told the Manila Times.
Okada allegedly took more than US$3 million from TRLEI without approval from the company’s board. He was forcibly removed as chairman and CEO in 2017 due to “serious violation of governance” and was also kicked off the board of parent company Universal Entertainment, which he founded.
He was then ousted from Okada Holdings Ltd., which holds more than two-thirds of the stock of Universal Entertainment. Okada has taken legal action to regain control of Okada Holdings and has also filed suit in the Philippines to regain his place at TRLEI.
Okada has denied all the charges against him, saying, “How can I defraud the company that I own?” He said the payments in question were approved by former TRLEI president and COO Takahiro Usui, and says the disbursements in question “underwent the proper procedure and were processed by the concerned offices within the company.”
