Japanese tycoon faces raps over $2-B casino

MANILA, Philippines - Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada is facing a string of criminal charges in the country in connection with alleged anomalies in his firm’s $2-billion resort casino at the Entertainment City in Parañaque.

A fact-finding team of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recommended the preliminary investigation of Okada on charges of violating the Philippine Anti-Dummy Law, Public Land Act, Foreign Investment Act and Article 12 of the Constitution.

The DOJ-NBI panel chaired by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rosalina Aquino conducted an investigation for over seven months and found that Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corp. used three local firms – Eagle I Landholdings Inc., Eagle II Holdco Inc. and Tiger Resort Inc. – to circumvent the 40-percent limit on foreign ownership on businesses in the country.

Apart from Okada, the probe panel said eight other Japanese nationals should also be held liable for the same alleged offenses: Tiger Resort chairman Hajime Tokuda; president Mitsuo Hida; and directors Ken Taura, Tetsutaro Shibata, Takeshi Nojima, Koki Seki, Masato Araki and Manabu Kawasaki.

“When the fact-finding team analyzed or scrutinized these companies, it turned out that they were actually just dummies or fronts of Universal. And this is against our laws,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima explained in a press conference.

Seventeen Filipinos and 10 local and foreign companies allowed themselves to be used as dummies of Universal and should also be charged, according to the 36-page report submitted to De Lima on June 28.

The team had also implicated in the anomaly Eagle I director Rodolfo Soriano Jr.; Eagle II executives Hector de Leon Jr., Ramon Songco, Llewellyn Llanillo, Rene Soriano, Andres Sta. Maria, Roberto San Juan, Manuel Camacho and Paulo Bombase; Tiger Resort executives and officers Imelda Manguiat, Jose Ma. Hofilena, Carina Laforteza and Jan Abano; and Platinum Gaming and Entertainment Corp. officers Roberto Suson, Ma. Lourdes Go and Victor Emmanuel Caindic. Several of them are lawyers.

Three foreign affiliates of Universal – Molly Investment Cooperative in the Netherlands, Aruze USA Inc. in the US and Hong Kong-based firm Future Fortune Ltd. – were also implicated along with local firms Lex Development Corp., Ultralex Holdings Corp. and Platinum Gaming and Entertainment Corp.

Soriano is the former consultant of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) who had allegedly received $5 million in May 2010 from a Hong Kong affiliate of Universal as bribe for the Entertainment City project. But the fact-finding team failed to establish the alleged bribery in their investigation.

“Apparently, the $40-million payments actually transpired,” the panel stressed in the report.

Only the three Japanese who processed the payments can explain their nature and purpose, but the three have refused to cooperate in the probe. Because of this, the DOJ opted to suspend the probe on the bribery and corruption charges “until sufficient evidence is established through cooperation of these witnesses.”

SyCip Salazar denies wrongdoing

The SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan law office, whose lawyers were included in the report, said all its activities were aboveboard.

“We take exception, in the strongest possible terms, to the NBI investigating panel’s resolution recommending the inclusion of several lawyers of SyCiP Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan in the prosecution of Mr. Kazuo Okada in connection with his Philippine investments,” the law firm’s managing partner Rafael Morales said in a statement yesterday. “SSHG and its lawyers have, at all times, acted in full compliance with all laws applicable to the transactions in which they were involved. Those transactions were legitimate and lawful and we are confident that a proper investigation will clear our lawyers of any wrongdoing.”