Speaker Martin Romualdez is being linked in a U.S. bribery case on the Okada family feud. “Heavy luggage” full of “the item” is alleged.
Also mentioned in the July 31, 2023 corporate lawsuit are “the President” and “judges on the … Supreme Court”. No identities.
Multimillion-readership international media headlined it. That government’s three branches are dragged in alarms foreign investors.
The Delaware Chancery Court brief names Romualdez as recipient of “an item” in “heavy luggage”. (See photo of pages 30-31 )
Romualdez didn’t respond since Tuesday to Gotcha’s calls and texts for his side. International media outlets reported similar silence.
“Within three days of the ‘item’ being delivered” Director Hajime Tokuda of Tokyo-listed Universal Entertainment Corp. “met directly with Speaker of the House Martin Romualdez,” the brief states.
It quotes Tokuda as reporting via “top-secret internal emails”: “Romualdez then and there called judges on the Philippines Supreme Court.”
Delaware-based 26 Capital Acquisition Corp. sued UEC over an aborted merger. It recounts how, in July-September 2022, UEC tried to influence Philippine officials in its conflict with units that run Okada Manila casino resort-hotel:
“Parent (UEC) worked on a more direct route to the top of the Philippine government, i.e., the Speaker of the House and the President.
“Parent’s Sato Nobuki traveled to the Philippines ‘with heavy luggage’ to deliver an ‘item’ directly to ‘Martin’.
“These barely disguised buzz words were used in top-secret internal emails and discussed only at the very top of UEC.”
Billionaire Kazuo Okada and son Tomohiro Okada are in tug-o’-war over UEC. Through subsidiary Tiger Resorts in 2007 Kazuo set up $2.6 billion, 40-hectare Okada Manila in Parañaque’s entertainment city.
Tomohiro wrested control of UEC in Tokyo in 2017, upheld by Japan’s High Court 2019. The Philippine Supreme Court reinstated Kazuo to Tiger in April 2022.
In August 2022, 26 Capital’s complaint avers, the SC clarified its ruling: “disruption is never the intent of the [status quo ante order] … as it does not direct the doing or undoing of acts.”
“On September 1-2, 2022, the Philippine DOJ and the Philippine Gaming Corporation issued written opinions adverse to Kazuo Okada’s illegal takeover,” 26 Capital narrates. “The national police and army promptly accompanied management and retook control of the casino.”
Launched by veteran gaming industry analyst Jason Ader, 26 Capital wants the court to compel UEC to honor their $275-million tie-up. With UEC owning 88 percent, they were to list in the New York Stock Exchange as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). That fell apart due to the father-son dispute.
26 Capital claims that among UEC’s wrongdoings are “potential bribery of governmental officials followed by efforts to run the deal clock out before such activity comes to light.”
UEC accused 26 Capital of fraudulent practices and delays. Ader counters that UEC faltered when he nominated to their common board Ira Raphaelson.
The latter was formerly “with Las Vegas Sands (casino chain) … and the U.S. Department of Justice, and is a leading expert on gaming, Anti-Money Laundering, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regulations in both the USA and Asia,” the case file says.
Ader’s lawyer adds: “During this time, SPAC remained engaged, asking questions about the UEC Parties’ efforts while SPAC itself lobbied through the U.S. embassy. Though SPAC was informed about the June 2022 term sheet, SPAC was never told about the July 2022 top-secret ‘heavy luggage’ mission.”
Global news outlets Bloomberg, Japan Times and Bloomberg Law News reported case details. Same with gaming industry sites Casino.org, Focus Gaming News, Asia Gaming Brief, Asia Casino News. Also Bravo News Ph. They expect UEC to deny allegations.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Romualdez’s cousin, has been travelling the globe for foreign investments. During his first six months in office, July-December 2022 he spent P392.3 million on foreign trips, state auditors report.
(Complete case file, 91 pages: https://assets.bwbx.io/…/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rl5hOJl.9TYs/v0)
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