Okada’s team files lawsuit against former TRLEI board members
Several former TRLEI board members have been accused of theft via contract with a pest control company.
The Philippines.- Legal disputes continue to mount up surrounding the battle for control of Okada Manila. Now the current board of Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment, Inc (TRLEI) has filed a lawsuit against former board members.
The lawsuit accuses Hajime Tokuda, Michiake Satate, Kenji Sugiyama, Toji Takeuchi, Celso G. Del Rosario, James Gordon Lorenzana and Jorge A. Miano of theft via a contract with pest control services company Master Fogger.
According to the Okada-led group, the former board member made two payments to Master Fogger totalling PHP140.8m (US$2.5m) in just 15 days after signing the contract. It says the larger amount was received by Roberto Jaime Gepilano, who it says worked for Argo Global Lending, not Master Fogger.
Kazuo Okada and his team claim that the agreement and subsequent payments were for personal gain as Michiake Satate was not only a former member of TRLEI but also a management consultant to Argo Global Lending. They say the alleged frauds were uncovered by an internal audit conducted by the new TRLEI board.
The Okada board claims that two pest control service agreements with other suppliers were significantly cheaper than the Master Fogger contract.
Okada’s board to maintain control of Okada Manila
A few weeks ago, the courts ruled again in favour of Kazuo Okada and his team, allowing them to retain control over the Okada Manila casino resort. The Supreme Court refused to overturn a status quo ante order (SQAO) that establishes Kazuo Okada as the sole representative of Tiger Resorts Asia (TRAL) in Tiger Resorts, Leisure and Entertainment (TRLEI).
On May 31, Tiger Resort Leisure Entertainment and Universal Entertainment Corp lodged a complaint against Okada’s takeover of Okada Manila. They argued that an April 27 Supreme Court order restoring TRLEI’s board to the state it was in before Okada was ousted did not give him the green light to occupy the gaming resort.
However, the Supreme Court said in its August 10 finding that the status quo ante order was properly issued per law and jurisprudence.
The matter will now be referred to the Court of Appeal, which must report back within 30 days.
The casino has recently reported gross gaming revenue of PHP8.30bn (US$149.3m) for Q2, up 37.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter from PHP6.02bn.
VIP GGR was up 27.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter to PHP3.25bn while mass-market table GGR was up 42.8 per cent to PHP2.19bn. Gaming machine GGR grew 46.7 per cent to PHP2.86bn and non-gaming revenue, including from hotel and food and beverages, was up 77.8 per cent to PHP665m.
