Okada complaints dismissed

MANILA, Philippines — Kazuo Okada, the embattled Japanese gaming tycoon, has recently scored two favorable legal decisions against Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc., his former company which is behind integrated casino resort Okada Manila.

In separate resolutions issued last month, the City Prosecutor’s Office of Parañaque dismissed “for lack of probable cause” two estafa complaints filed against Okada by Tiger Resort.

One involved the release of $3.15 million in company funds to Okada as salaries and consultancy fees, while the second case involved the payment of $7.09-million to Okada’s Aruze Philippines Manufacturing Inc. for allegedly supplying defective LED strip lights to Tiger Resort for Okada Manila’s building facade.

Tiger Resort is the company behind Okada Manila, the casino resort which continues to carry its Japanese founder’s name. Okada was the former chairman of Tiger Resort. He was ousted from the company after his wife and children turned against him for alleged fraudulent activities.

In dismissing both complaints, city prosecutors said the legal controversy partakes the nature of intra-corporate disputes between the company and its officers, which are civil in nature.

The first complaint, which was dismissed on May 11, involved Okada and Takahiro Usui, Tiger Resort’s former COO and president, for releasing the $3.15 million in company funds supposedly as salaries and consultancy fees of Okada as CEO.

The amount was released in tranches from April to May 2017, but Tiger Resorts said its board of directors did not authorize such disbursement.

However, Okada, in his counter-affidavit, said the funds represent his salary and consultancy fee and that receipt of the amount was proper and legal since respondent Usui had the authority to determine and approve the salary or compensation he was entitled to receive as company CEO and consultant.

For this complaint, city prosecutor Amerhassan Paudac said a legal remedy may lie before the appropriate forum/fora “but definitely not before this very office since it only receives complaints that are criminal in nature.”

The second complaint, which was dismissed last May 15, involved Tiger Resort and Okada as well as his company Aruze Philippines Manufacturing Inc. and his associates Kengo Takeda and Tetsuya Yokota.

Tiger Resort chief executive adviser Dindo Espeleta alleged Okada and his company Aruze Philippines provided defective LED strip lights to Okada Manila when it was awarded the contract to install the casino’s LED strips for a contract price of $4.5 million.

Espeleta alleged that several problems were encountered with a number of LED strips.

For instance, Espeleta said some did not emit the intended plum color, while others did not work at all.

But in its defense, Aruze Philippines said this was due to the installation of the LED strips by a third party. The company said it had to undertake remedial measures to correct the installation.

Tiger Resorts paid Aruze $7.091 million due to the extra work, according to the complaint.

But city prosecutors again dismissed the complaint for being civil in nature and not criminal.

“Following a painstaking review of the pieces of evidence presented, this office finds no probable cause to indict the respondents for the crime charge, the instant complaint appearing to be merely civil in nature,” Paudac said.

“(T)he facts in this case are insufficient to engender a well founded belief that a crime of estafa has been committed, taking into consideration that the source of the obligation in this case is a contract from which the instant complaint arose… the instant complaint must be recommended dismissed, the contractual relation discussed being completely inconsistent with the presence and negating the existence of estafa,” Paudac also said in the resolution.