Posted on: December 2, 2022, 10:04h.
Final up to date on: December 2, 2022, 01:37h.
Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada, 80, issued a prolonged assertion to On line casino.org late Thursday night time declaring his innocence concerning the grave coercion cost he’s going through within the Philippines.
Kazuo Okada says he’s been the sufferer of a company coup. The Japanese billionaire is attempting to regain management of Okada Manila, the multibillion-dollar on line casino resort within the Philippines that bears his title. (Picture: Reuters)
In an e mail titled, “The Ache of Betrayal,” Okada paints an expose on his profession that recounts a lifetime of success.
Okada detailed founding Japan’s Common Leisure Company (UEC) as an amusement firm, and later repositioning the agency via a serious guess that “risked the corporate’s fortune” to develop and manufacture slot-like pachinko video games known as “pachislot” machines. The gaming magnate, later dubbed the “Pachinko King,” stated he used a few of his wealth to assist Steve Wynn type Wynn Resorts with a 50 billion yen funding within the early 2000s.
Okada later envisioned, constructed, and opened Okada Manila within the Philippines at a price of $2.4 billion. Although the Manila mission led to Wynn severing ties with Okada after stories surfaced that Okada greased Filipino officers’ pockets in change for the gaming license, Okada in his tell-all this week claims he did all of it with integrity and sophistication.
Okada writes that his 2017 ousting from Common and Tiger Resort, Leisure & Leisure, Inc. (TRLEI), the latter being the mother or father entity to Okada Manila, was rigorously crafted by those that have betrayed him. On the prime of his record of treachery is Jun Fujimoto, who stays president at Common.
Okada says he was launched to Fujimoto a few years in the past by mates at Nomura Securities. “I welcomed him [Fujimoto] warmly and took the person in as a board member,” Okada claimed.
Okada Denies Theft
The Common and TRLEI boards in June 2017 voted to oust Okada from his boardroom seats.
The votes got here after a company evaluate alleged that Okada improperly transferred $17.3 million in TRLEI funds to a banking account he managed. Common officers moreover stated they believed Okada stole $2 million from one other account belonging to Okada Manila.
Okada has lengthy maintained that the cash transfers had been inside his authorized authority. In his assertion this week, the billionaire says his huge web price makes such theft claims baseless.
Fujimoto established an investigative committee with a lawyer whom he had acquired … and had the committee conspire by threatening, coercing, or bribing the then-general supervisor of the UEC Administration Division and different executives and workers to organize an investigative report that decided that I had obtained illicit income from the corporate,” Okada wrote. “The alleged ill-gotten features from this report amounted to roughly two billion yen.”
“Till the coup, I managed roughly 70% of UEC’s inventory. It’s clear that there is no such thing as a cause for me to commit a legal act in an effort to get hold of two billion yen,” Okada asserted. Two billion yen at present equals about $14.7 million.
Pleads for Understanding
Since his 2017 ousting, which Okada claims was led by Fujimoto and supported by Okada’s adult-aged youngsters, the gaming magnate has been in search of to regain management of Common and TRLEI, and successfully, Okada Manila.
Okada says his repute is on the road, one thing that shouldn’t be the case following what he claims is a distinguished profession within the international gaming trade spanning greater than a half-century.
Within the spirit of the vacation season … I sincerely thank the assist and cooperation of many Filipinos who stand by me and imagine in my righteousness in preventing Jun Fujimoto’s fraudulent and false allegations towards me,” Okada continued. “I’m increasingly decided to get better Okada Manila and UEC from the palms of criminals as quickly as attainable. I sincerely ask to your understanding and cooperation.”
Okada’s grave coercion cost, nonetheless, has nothing to do with whether or not Okada did or didn’t steal company funds again in 2017. As an alternative, the case stems from Okada’s forcible takeover of Okada Manila earlier this 12 months.
Armed with a Standing Quo Ante Order issued by the Philippines Supreme Court docket — directing TRLEI to revive its boardroom make-up to its 2017 association with Okada seated — on Might 31, a Kazuo-led group stormed Okada Manila’s company workplaces. They eliminated most executives from the premises. The Kazuo group managed the on line casino for just a little greater than three months earlier than the Philippines Division of Justice and Philippines Amusement and Gaming Company ordered Okada Manila to be returned to TRLEI.
Okada has retained his TRLEI board seat all through the authorized intra-corporate dispute. The grave coercion case towards him within the Philippines continues.
