Ousted by his own company
Universal Entertainment, once run by Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada, acknowledges it has received a full investigative report on “potentially fraudulent” money transfers made by the former chairman and director.
But the firm has declined to publish the report, at least for now. According to GGRAsia, in a statement the company said it’s considering whether to redact parts of the document that are “unfit for disclosure from the standpoint of protecting the business secrets of the company and its business partners, protecting the privacy of individuals and so forth.”
The company added that the final version is being prepared by members of a special investigation committee “with no involvement by officers and employees of the company.”
In June, Universal formed the committee to look at the suspicious outflow of 1 billion yen (US $17.3 million) from a subsidiary, Tiger Resort Asia Ltd., to an unnamed third party. The third party was later identified as Okada Holdings Ltd., then directed by Okada himself. In a press release, Universal said HKD130 million of the money in question was found to be for the purpose of “personal benefit for Chairman Okada.”
On June 8, Okada was stripped of “all rights and authorities” to operate his own company. In July, Okada filed a lawsuit in Hong Kong against his son, daughter and wife in an attempt to regain control of Okada Holdings, which reportedly controls 67.9 percent of Universal, parent company of Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment, which in turn operates Okada Manila, the newest casino resort in Manila’s Entertainment City.
Yoshinao Negishi, a former director and general manager of Universal’s administrative division, has also been accused of wrongdoing in the matter.
