{"id":26988,"date":"2022-02-04T11:04:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T14:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=26988"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:35:36","slug":"law-firm-claims-kazuo-okada-owes-63m-in-unpaid-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/law-firm-claims-kazuo-okada-owes-63m-in-unpaid-fees","title":{"rendered":"Law firm claims Kazuo Okada owes $63m in unpaid fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A law firm, Bartlit Beck, claims former Universal Entertainment Corp chairman Kazuo Okada owes it $63m in unpaid attorney fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Philippines.- Law firm Bartlit Beck has asked a federal judge in Chicago to order former Universal Entertainment Corp chairman\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/kazuo-okada-excluded-from-returning-to-boards\" target=\"_blank\">Kazuo Okada<\/a> to\u00a0<strong>respond to a discovery request and to pay some of its legal costs<\/strong>. It says Okada owes it $63m in unpaid attorneys\u2019 fees<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Okada and the Chicago-based litigation firm have been embroiled in lawsuits since 2018. Okada hired the company for a legal battle between Universal Entertainment and Wynn Resorts\u00a0that culminated in a $2.6bn settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arbitration panel tacitly awarded Bartlit Beck $50m in 2019 after Okada stopped participating in the lawsuit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>US district judge John Kness\u00a0<\/strong>approved the award last March. However, Okada has appealed the decision at the 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bartlit Beck stated: &#8220;Kazuo Okada has long refused to pay the $63,369,610.25 he owes Bartlit Beck. He has now thumbed his nose at Bartlit Beck\u2019s discovery requests aimed at executing that judgment.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, the Philippines Court of Appeals <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/fraud-charges-against-kazuo-okada-dismissed-by-philippines-court\" target=\"_blank\">dismissed fraud charges against Kazuo Okada<\/a>\u00a0and his partner Takahiro Usui for misappropriating more than US$3m from Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2018<strong>&nbsp;the Philippine Department of Justice had recommended three counts of fraud against Okada<\/strong>&nbsp;after he received US$3.15m in salary and consulting fees \u201cthrough error or fraud\u201d while serving as CEO of Tiger Resorts, Leisure and entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A law firm, Bartlit Beck, claims former Universal Entertainment Corp chairman Kazuo Okada owes it $63m in unpaid attorney fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Bartlit Beck, a law firm, is pursuing former Universal Entertainment Corp chairman Kazuo Okada for $63 million in unpaid attorney fees stemming from a 2018 legal engagement related to the Universal Entertainment and Wynn Resorts settlement. Okada is appealing a US district judge's approval of a $50 million award to Bartlit Beck. Separately, fraud charges against Okada and Takahiro Usui concerning the alleged misappropriation of US$3 million from Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc. were recently dismissed by the Philippines Court of Appeals.","focusai_entities":"Bartlit Beck, Kazuo Okada, Universal Entertainment Corp, Wynn Resorts, Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc., Takahiro Usui, John Kness, 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals, Philippines Court of Appeals, Philippine Department of Justice","focusai_location":"Philippines, Chicago, US","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.7), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"7th Circuit Appeal Impact?","query":"What are the potential implications of the 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals' decision on the $63 million attorney fees for future corporate governance and executive liability in the iGaming sector?"},{"label":"Okada's APAC Re-engagement?","query":"How might the dismissal of fraud charges in the Philippines impact Kazuo Okada's ability to re-engage with or influence major gaming enterprises in the APAC region?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,439],"tags":[23911,8986],"class_list":["post-26988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-okada-manila"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26988"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26999,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26988\/revisions\/26999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}