Okada’s PHL lawyer says reports of arrest in Hong Kong not true

Reports quoting Hong Kong tabloids that businessman Kazuo Okada was arrested in the autonomous territory of southeastern China is simply not true, a lawyer said Tuesday.

Published by Philippine media and international news services, reports have it that Okada was arrested by the “Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) for conspiracy to defraud Okada Holdings of ¥135 million ($19.7 million).”

Lawyer Rean Balisi of Blanco & Esguerra Law Office noted in a statement on Tuesday “that the aforementioned case had been dismissed as of May 2018 ... The case now reportedly pending before the ICAC could be merely a rehash of the case that had already been previously dismissed.”

In a separate interview, Okada’s lawyer told GMA News Online that in fact Okada himself went to the ICAC to find out if there was indeed a new case filed against him. Balisi said he got the information from his client’s lawyer in Honk Kong.

“What is clear is that the ICAC is not commenting on individual cases,” Balisi noted.

In the statement, Balisi said the “case appears to be merely a retaliation by Okada’s detractors to the two criminal cases filed by Okada and his daughter, Hiromi Okada,  before Hong Kong’s Commercial Crime Bureau.”

On 9 May 2018, Kazuo Okada supposedly filed a criminal case of theft, conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering against Universal Entertainment Corporation’s president Jun Fujimoto, and Makoto Takada and Atsunobu Ishida—“both claiming to be Okada Holdings Limited (OHL) directors, and several other individuals,” the statement said.

The case involves 43.48 percent shares (worth approximately HK$6.18 billion) in OHL, an Okada Family company incorporated in Hong Kong, and a suspected case of ‘money laundering’ involving US$43,497,203.80,” Balisi noted in the statement.

On March 23, 2018, Hiromi Okada also filed a criminal case against her brother, Tomohiro Okada, Takada, Ishida, and Fujimoto for fraud caused by the unlawful transfer and seizure of her 9.78 percent shareholdings in OHL.

“Okada and his daughter Hiromi are in control of Okada Holdings, a family corporation and ... it is simply impossible and absurd for [Okada] to defraud his own company Balisi noted.

“What is clear is that there are no charges against Mr. Okada with the ICAC or any law enforcement agency in Hong Kong,” he said. —VDS, GMA News