Japanese gaming mogul and pachinko king Kazuo Okada has been ordered arrested by a Parañaque City Regional Trial Court to face charges of embezzlement involving more than $3 million in funds of the posh Okada Manila casino resort.
READ: Okada files appeal with Justice over $3.2-m estafa case
In a warrant issued on Friday by Judge Rolando How of Paranaque City RTC Branch 257, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police were directed to present Okada and co-accused Takahiro Usui to court.
Both accused were earlier indicted by prosecutors of the Department of Justice on three counts of estafa, punishable under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.
Judge How has set the bail at P348,000 for each of the accused for their temporary liberty.
In three separate criminal information filed by DoJ prosecutors on Dec. 28, Okada and Usui were accused of “conspiring, confederating and mutually helping one another” in the unauthorized disbursements of Okada Manila funds between November 2016 and May 2017.
In a resolution in early December, Assistant State Prosecutor Ajejandro Daguiso found Okada liable to face trial for estafa arising from a complaint filed by Tiger Resort Leisure & Entertainment Inc., owner of the hotel resort in Parañaque.
Okada was TRLEI’s chief executive officer until mid-2017.
TRLEI accused Okada of illegal disbursement of company funds amounting to $3.145 million (around P167 million) purportedly as his consultancy fees and salaries during his tenure as CEO through his accomplice Usui, then TRLEI president.
Said disbursements were not authorized by the TRLEI board.
In his December resolution, Daguiso dismissed Okada’s defenses as unconvincing.
“(Okada’s) defenses are now appropriately matters of evidence to be proven in a full-blown trial,” he said in the resolution.
Daguiso also indicted Usui for conspiracy in the commission of the offense.