Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING OCTOBER 2018 22 COVER STORY of buying existing stocks. There was discussion of a possible resolution and settlement with Wynn, but at that time it wasn’t really set or understood when that would happen. So given doubt over when the additional money would come in, it’s just natural to think that it would be best for additional shares to be issued and for additional money to be put into the company. So I was very confident that if this were to have been raised in the agenda at the shareholder’s meeting, I would have been able to pass that. Why? Because this is my company that I built up over all the years. I’d been on the ground level in this Okada Manila project getting dirty with all the employees, including [then-Tiger Resorts COO Takahiro] Usui here, who’s everyday covered in dust, basically looking like a snowman all white in cement dust, always on site. I think the other people you see have never really been hands-on involved, they never really had an idea as to what’s going on. I could explain to everyone – the other shareholders – that I know what’s going on and I can make this project work, I would be able to convince them. As I was getting fully involved with the Okada Manila project, I bought a residence there, I was there most of the time. If I were to go back to Tokyo, it would be two or three days out of one month. children,” Global Market Advisors Senior Partner Andrew Klebanow says. “I have to believe that Okada’s children are very well educated and are capable of critical thinking. Perhaps Hiromi was gullible in following her brother’s instructions in signing over her shares without outside counsel, but I am not buying that Tomohiro was brainwashed.” US$43 MILLION TRANSFER TO ARUZE USA Okada claims that Fujimoto directed a US$43 million transfer in May 2012 to Aruze USA, a Universal subsidiary established as a vehicle for receiving Wynn Resorts dividends. Okada alleges the transfer is part of a multiyear scheme to discredit him through fraudulent financial transactions. US$40 MILLION TRANSFER TO PHILIPPINE CONSULTANT In November 2012, Reuters reported three payments totaling US$40 million during 2010 to Rodolfo “Boysee” Soriano, a close associate of then-Pagcor Chairman Efraim Genuino. Universal, then chaired by Okada, took legal action against Reuters and against Universal employees it claims made the payments without authorization, legal actions which continued following Okada’s ouster. Last year, a Tokyo judge, ruling in the case of an employee suing for defamation, declared Okada ordered the payments. Reuters reported in 2013 that Universal Director Hajime Tokuda altered minutes of a 2009 meeting to indicate executive officers approved the US$25 million payment. Tokuda, who did not stand for reelection as a director after the report, now serves as Universal’s chief operating officer and a director. Okada denies approving the payments and notes that the transfers of US$25 million, US$10 million and US$5 million were all made through Aruze USA, also the funding source for alleged excessive hospitality that Wynn Resorts seized on to remove Okada from its board and redeem Universal’s shares at a US$900 million discount. Okada claims a rogue employee linked to the US$43 million transfer to Aruze USA participated in this transfer.