Okada wants to regain control of business

A court filing confirmed that the tycoon Okada sued his family in order to regain control over his business.

Hong Kong.- After Kazuo Okada, founder and Chairman at the slot manufacturer Universal Entertainment Corp, started being investigated after a US$17.3 million transfer to another business of his, and the restitution of his position by his family, the official announced that he sued his family to regain control of the company.

As he told Reuters, Okada decided to file the lawsuit in order to bring attention to the case and get his family to negotiate the control of the board of the Hong Kong company, which is the majority owner of Universal Entertainment Corp. The casino mogul believes that the move to kick him off his own company was wrong, and that he hasn’t seen his family in years. “Unless I sue there will be no opportunity to talk. The reality is I am in a losing position in terms of voting rights,” he had said.

Last month, Universal informed in a filing to the JASDAQ Securities Exchange that it has appointed a Special Investigation Committee to dig into the affair. The investigation crew is integrated by corporate auditors, Internal Audit Office members and independent external experts that will annalyse the allegedly fraudulent money movements that might have been orchestrated by Okada and Yoshinao Negishi, the company’s Director.

Okada and Negishi are believed to have transferred US$17.3 million from Tiger Resort Asia Ltd to another company on March 2015. The report filed with the JASDAQ indicates that the loan was made without the “proper internal decision-making processes.” After the initial transfer, the second company also moved US$16.7 million to another one called Okada Holdings Ltd., at which Universal’s founder was Director at the time. Said money movement is apparently intended to bring personal benefit to Okada, according to the report presented to Universal’s Board of Directors.