Gaming firm brings fight vs ex-boss to court

Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada and two associates have been sued for estafa and perjury by their former business partners for allegedly defrauding the complainants of more than $10 million in corporate funds.

Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. charged Okada with illegally collecting some $3 million in salaries and consultancy fees for only a month as the company’s chief executive officer, a position he held until he was removed unceremoniously by the gaming firm’s board of directors in June 2017.

Tiger Resort, operator of the integrated gaming resort Okada Manila, filed the complaint in the Paranaque City prosecutor’s office against Okada and former Tiger Resort president and chief operating officer Takahiro Usui.

The casino operator, a subsidiary of the Japan-based gaming resorts developer Universal Entertainment Corp., said its board did not authorize Usui to approve the release of “astronomical sums” to Okada as payment for his services from April to May 2017.

The money given Okada, the complaint said, “were unlawfully disbursed.” The company demanded a return of the money to no avail.

Okada and Usui had questioned their ouster from the company in a civil suit against Tiger Resort at the Paranaque City Regional Trial Court.

In a separate complaint filed in the Makati City prosecutor’s office on Dec. 6, Tiger Resort accused Okada of fraudulently facilitating the award of a $7-million supply contract for the installation of LED fixtures in Okada Manila to a company he owned.