In Japan and former casino magnate Kazuo Okada (pictured) has reportedly lost an appeal against a Tokyo District Court decision that had ordered him to pay some ¥21.3 million ($204,560) in compensation to the firm he once headed, international gaming conglomerate Universal Entertainment Corporation.
According to a report from Inside Asian Gaming, the 77-year-old businessman was ousted as Chairman for the company behind the Philippines’ giant Okada Manila integrated casino resort in June of 2017 amid allegations that he had sanctioned the illicit transfer of company cash. The source detailed that the Tokyo-headquartered operator subsequently filed a lawsuit that sought to have Okada pay some of the costs related to its associated investigation into these claims.
Definitive defeat:
Inside Asian Gaming reported that a Tokyo District Court found for Universal Entertainment Corporation in February and ordered Okada to hand over the cash as well as around $10,200 in associated interest charges that had accumulated since the end of 2017. The defendant later appealed this ruling to the Tokyo High Court but has now purportedly been left hurting after this body ruled that the claims contained within his application ‘were objectively contrary to the facts and as such inadmissible.’
Critical condemnation:
In responding to this latest decision, Universal Entertainment Corporation reportedly declared that the original Tokyo District Court ruling had acknowledged ‘that the fraudulent acts were conducted under the order of Mr Okada’ and that the septuagenarian had ‘breached both his duty of care as a good manager and his fiduciary duty of loyalty as a director of the company.’
Contentious claims:
Okada was reportedly ejected after allegations emerged that he had approved a loan worth approximately $17.4 million from the casino-operating Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Incorporated subsidiary of Universal Entertainment Corporation to a third-party for his own use without imposing any interest charges. The billionaire entrepreneur was purportedly moreover suspected of procuring an unauthorized check from this same entity worth about $2 million and pocketing a further $173,500 as part of a deal tied to the company’s purchase of land in South Korea.
Desired delay:
In related news and GGRAsia reported that Universal Entertainment Corporation used an official Friday filing to pronounce that it will be seeking shareholder approval to extend by a further three years the due date for $600 million in previously-issued loan notes. This source explained that these bonds had been set to mature in December of 2021 but that the Osaka-listed firm is now hoping to extend their lifespan while adding an additional $100 million in such pledges featuring an annual interest rate of 8.5%.