Hell hath no fury: Okada throws casino founder under the bus
It looks like the parent company of Okada casino resort is determined to keep founder Kazuo Okada holed up in Hong Kong, preferably under lock and key.
The Monday announcement by Tokyo-based Universal Entertainment Corp. said that its former chairman had been arrested in the Chinese territory by the feared Independent Commission Against Corruption in relation to multiple corruption-related offences.
The announcement then added that Okada had been released after posting bail, whose conditions normally include surrender of the subject’s passport and a promise not to leave Hong Kong.
“Notwithstanding the aforesaid, we will render our full support and assistance to the ICAC and other law enforcement authorities should the situation require,” said Universal Entertainment president Jun Fujimoto.
Fujimoto, along with Okada’s son and Okada’s second wife, Takako, control the Tokyo parent company as well as the Manila casino after ousting Okada in a boardroom coup.
The 75-year-old gaming tycoon, in retaliation, sued his son and his second wife in an attempt to wrest control of his gaming empire.
The Hong Kong arrest of Okada came after the Pasay City prosecutor’s office dismissed the estafa case filed by Universal Entertainment against the controversial Japanese tycoon.
That dismissal, incidentally, first became public after an excasino manager, a Korean lady diplomatically termed by previous press reports as a “close companion” of the casino founder, posted the dispositive portion on her Instagram account.
This prompted the Manila lawyers of the Tokyo parent, who have yet to receive a copy of the resolution, to decry prosecution bias and to elevate an appeal to new Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
Universal Entertainment then announced that it was filing criminal and civil cases against Aruze Gaming Philippine Manufacturing Inc. as part of a string of related lawsuits in the United States, Macau, and Hong Kong against the Aruze Group and owner Kazuo Okada, “which had illegally used patents on gaming machines belonging to the company (Universal Entertainment).”
The Philippine manufacturing facility makes generic slot machines in the Light Industry Science Park in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. According to Aruze, the Batangas factory employed 800 workers in December 2016, producing
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