A former lawyer of Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada is facing disbarment charges for allegedly abandoning and betraying him.
Okada’s lawyer Rean Balisi revealed that a complaint for disbarment was set to be filed against lawyer Joemer Perez, his former legal counsel in his firm Tiger Resorts Leisure and Entertainment Inc.
Two associates of Perez would be included in the complaint, Balisi said in a statement.
The Japanese billionaire, who was ousted as director and chairman of TRLEI that operated Okada Manila, would ask the Supreme Court to discipline the three lawyers for conflict of interest and betrayal of trust and confidence.
According to Balisi, Okada alleged in the disbarment complaint they prepared during the tycoon's recent visit in Manila that Perez and company violated the Code of Professional Responsibility for lawyers.
Perez and his associates used to represent Okada in several cases when the Japanese mogul was still TRLEI chairman.
During their meetings, Okada entrusted Perez with confidential information about his business interests in the Philippines. Okada later hired Perez to join TRLEI.
However, when the businessman was ousted from his post by executives of TRLEI, Perez shifted his loyalty to Okada’s rivals and now even handles the criminal cases filed against his former boss.
Okada said that Perez and his associates should be administratively penalized by the SC for betraying him and for handling the cases against him—in an apparent case of conflict of interest.
No further details on the disbarment case were divulged as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines commission on Bar discipline has a strict confidentiality rule about divulging details about disbarment cases.
Recently, a top executive of TRLEI was slapped with criminal charges filed by a manufacturing firm before the Parañaque City prosecutor’s office.
Aruze Philippines Manufacturing Inc., through its president Tetsuya Yokota, has recently filed perjury charges against TRLEI chief executive advisor Dindo Espeleta over the latter’s “false and malicious” accusations in the estafa case involving the supply of LED strip lights worth $4.5 million for the façade of casino-resort Okada Manila that was already dismissed by prosecutors.
In a 16-page complaint filed before the Parañaque City prosecutor's office, APMI accused Espeleta of three counts of perjury which is punishable under the Revised Penal Code with a maximum penalty of two years and four months imprisonment per count.
APMI cited as basis for the criminal charge the claims made by the TRLEI executive in the estafa complaint filed against the company and Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada in December last year over the allegedly defective lights.
The complainant alleged that Espeleta committed perjury for claiming that he wasn’t aware that APMI will not supply the LED strips for the project.