GGRAsia – Order to restore Kazuo Okada unclear, vague: Tiger Resort

Order to restore Kazuo Okada unclear, vague: Tiger Resort

May 18, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Philippines, Top of the deck

Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc (TRLEI), the entity controlling the Okada Manila casino resort (pictured) in the Philippines, issued a statement on Tuesday saying “it believes there is a strong legal basis” for the revocation of an order issued by the Philippine Supreme Court regarding control of the company.

The firm confirmed it had filed an “urgent motion” in the Philippine Supreme Court, asking it to “reconsider or revoke” a status quo order issued on April 28, that representatives of Japanese businessman Kazuo Okada say would restore him to the TRLEI board. GGRAsia had reported last week that TRLEI had filed a motion to the court, asking that body to revoke the status quo order.

TRLEI said in its latest statement the removal of Mr Okada from the TRLEI board “was valid and legal and done upon the instructions” of TRLEI’s immediate parent company Tiger Resort Asia Ltd.

The document said Tiger Resort Asia – the majority shareholder of TRLEI at 99.99 percent – “voted substantially all of the shares of TRLEI for the removal of Mr Okada from the company”.

In June 2017, the entrepreneur was ousted from the board not only of TRLEI, but also its parent, Japanese conglomerate Universal Entertainment Corp, after being accused by the latter company of fraud. He denied the allegations.

Tuesday’s statement by TRLEI noted: “The status quo order is very unclear and vague as to how it can possibly be implemented, especially considering that in the past five years, many things have happened in TRLEI that obviously cannot simply be undone or disregarded.”

The document went on to say: “Tiger Resort Asia, which is a Hong Kong company, is not under the jurisdiction of Philippine courts nor subject to the status quo order.”

The release added: “Further, TRLEI is indirectly wholly owned by Universal Entertainment Corp, a Japanese publicly-listed company.

“The Tokyo District Court, Tokyo High Court and Japanese Supreme Court have already effectively decided with finality that Mr Okada’s removal was valid.”

Universal Entertainment, Tiger Resort Asia, and TRLEI were “confident that the Philippine Supreme Court will eventually see the correctness of TRLEI’s position, rule in TRLEI’s favour, and recognise the Japanese courts’ decisions on the dispute between Japanese citizens over the control of the Japanese parent of TRLEI and its subsidiaries”.

The statement concluded: “Please be assured that there is no change in the leadership and management of Universal Entertainment, Tiger Resort Asia, or TRLEI.”

It reiterated an earlier assurance by TRLEI that “the business operations of TRLEI and Okada Manila continue as usual and we expect that these events will not affect or disrupt our day-to-day activities.”