The parent company of Okada Manila operator Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc (TRLEI) said Monday that its reinstated board would need to assess the financial impact of the past three months – accusing Kazuo Okada and his representatives of wrongfully seizing assets and destroying key documents.
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, the Tiger Resort Asia Ltd (TRAL)-backed board of TRLEI reclaimed control of Okada Manila over the weekend after a group of around 50 men, supported by gaming regulator PAGCOR and the Philippine National Police, stormed the property.
The scenes, remarkably similar to those seen three months earlier when representatives of Mr Okada seized control, came after PAGCOR last week issued the Kazuo Okada-led board of TRLEI with a “cease and desist” order and directed them to vacate the casino at Okada Manila in order to reinstate the TRAL-backed board.
In an update on Monday, Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp – parent company of both TRAL and TRLEI – said it will now make efforts to normalize the operations of the integrated resort by investigating the matter and examining financial records.
It also accused Mr Okada’s representatives of “dismissing key employees in many of its departments [and] discharging employees who did not follow the instructions of Mr Okada’s group.
“It is further assumed that Mr Okada’s group has destroyed contracts and other evidential documents, taken them outside the company without permission, wrongfully seized some real assets (taking some of the amounts controlled in the cage) and falsified digital data.”
Universal acknowledged that Mr Okada would remain on the TRLEI board as “stockholder, director, chairman and CEO” as per the Status Que Ante Order than instigated the intra-corporate battle in May, but noted this did not empower him to install a new board of directors and that he would not serve as a representative of TRAL, which holds 99.9% of the voting rights in TRLEI.
Representatives of Kazuo Okada, meanwhile, have accused PAGCOR of failing to observe legal process in permitting the TRAL backed board to reclaim control.
In a statement sent to IAG, Mr Okada’s team said, “It should be noted that PAGCOR’s role is merely to validate who is fit to hold a board position in Okada Manila and not to appoint any specific individuals to positions in the company.
“PAGCOR’s swift action circumvented all manner of legal process which includes the issuance of memos and the relevant information to the Kazuo Okada led management team first before the actual serving of the CDO and the physical removal of the Okada led management from the company premises.”
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