Japanese businessman Kazuo Okada is pressing on with his legal fight to regain control of his gaming empire with freshly filed charges against a handful of Okada Holdings and Universal Entertainment Corp. officials, including his son Tomohiro and his estranged wife Takako
According to reports from multiple Asian news outlets from the past weekend, Mr. Okada’s legal team filed earlier this month theft and estafa (fraud) charges to the Office of the City Prosecutor of Parañaque.
The businessman has been maintaining that he was victim of a vicious plot to be ousted from his executive roles at Okada Holdings and multiple subsidiaries, including Universal Entertainment. His latest legal complaints further read that the plot was devised by his son Tomohiro and involved his estranged wife and his protege Jun Fujimoto, among others.
Multiple other officials at the Okada-related companies, including director Kenshi Asano as well as Philippine businessman Antonio Cojuangco, Michelle Lazaro, Kenji Sugiyama, Manuel Lazaro, Reynaldo David, and Steven Wolstenholme, were too named in Mr. Okada’s legal complaint.
In his 37-page filing, the Japanese mogul said that he “trusted each of the respondents” to protect his interests, but instead they “willfully participated” in a plot designed to “facilitate my removal and replacement as chairman and director of Tiger PHL.”
Tiger Resort Leisure Entertainment Inc. is the Philippine subsidiary of Universal Entertainment that runs the Okada Manila hotel and casino resort.
How the Legal Battle Started
Mr. Okada’s latest legal complaint stemmed from a nearly two-year battle that started in June 2017 with his ouster as Chairman of Universal Entertainment, the gaming machine manufacturer he founded in the 1960s.
Universal Entertainment tapped investigators to probe into the alleged transfer of HK$135 million Mr. Okada had conducted without approval from the company’s board. The funds was allegedly intended to bring personal benefit to Mr. Okada.
Over the next few months after the scandal broke out, the businessman was forced out of his roles at Universal Entertainment’s subsidiaries, including its Philippines-facing ones that run the luxury Okada Manila complex. Mr. Okada has been trying to regain control of his business ever since.
It has since become clear that at the center of it all stands a bitter family feud between Mr. Okada and his son Tomohiro, who the tycoon believes was one of the masterminds behind his ouster.
The Japanese businessman is himself facing fraud charges in the Philippines. The Parañaque City Regional Trial Court affirmed the previously pressed charges earlier this month as well as an arrest warrant against Mr. Okada.
According to the charges, the businessman paid himself more than $3 million in 2017 without approval from the Tiger Resort board. Mr. Okada has responded to the accusations by saying that the money represented wages and fees he was owed for his roles at the company as well as for consultant services he had provided. He has further pointed out that the transfer was not illegal as he was in full control of Tiger Resort at the time and he did not need the board’s approval.
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