DOJ to probe ‘leakage’ of resolutions on estafa raps vs. Kazuo Okada

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will investigate how parts of the two resolutions supposedly dismissing estafa complaints against Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada ended up on social media even before the court has officially released the documents.

Parañaque City prosecutor Amerhassan Paudac has been to asked to inhibit from the cases of Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI) after portions of unreleased resolutions ended up on the social media pages of Okada’s “close companion.”

Tiger Resort is the operator of integrated casino resort and hotel complex Okada Manila in Entertainment City.

“The DOJ will look into the alleged leakage of the resolution in the Okada case and will act accordingly,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a text message to GMA News Online on Monday.

Tiger Resorts want Paudac out of the picture after a certain Chloe Kim posted on her Facebook and Instagram pages the “dispositive/signature” portions of resolutions dismissing the two estafa cases against Okada, even before the documents were officially sent to the parties involved.

A former manager at Okada Manila, Kim no longer reported for work after the billionaire was removed as chair of the firm’s board of directors last year, the motion read.

Kim earlier “bragged” on social media about boarding a private jet and yacht with Okada. 

“In view of the foregoing circumstances, it is clear that copies of the supposed Resolutions in the first and second estafa cases have been leaked to Respondent Kazuo Okada and/or his close companion, even before the Resolutions could be officially released,” it stated.

That Paudac has the final say on the resolutions means the documents could not have been leaked to Okada and Kim without his participation, it said.

“As a result, there is a real and unmistakable basis for Complainant TRLEI to believe that City Prosecutor Amerhassan C. Paudac is biased and partial in favor of Respondent Kazuo Okada,” the motion said, noting a sense of apprehension that the decisions “had been arranged” to absolve gaming tycoon.

Okada is facing charges of estafa and perjury filed by Tiger Resorts, which he briefly led as chief executive officer last year, before being booted out by a majority of the shareholders.

He is accused of embezzling more than $10 million of corporate funds between early 2016 and June 2017, and has been placed under the Bureau of Immigration’s lookout bulletin.

Okada and his companies were also the subjects of investigations in the United States for possible trespasses against anti-bribery laws in relation to a $2-billion casino project in the Philippines. —VDS, GMA News