Nevada court junks Okada extortion counter suit against Wynn

kazuo-okada-steve-wynnKazuo Okada’s long-standing legal battles with Steve Wynn may have died down in recent months, but the simmering animosity between the two former partners once again resurfaced after a Nevada judge dismissed Okada’s countersuit against Wynn, saying it was not “cognizable” under Nevada Law.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez made the move to junk Okada’s civil extortion lawsuit against Wynn Resorts, specifically ol’ Steve-O and the company’s general counsel Kimmarie Sinatra, that eventually forced him to sell his stake of Wynn Resorts at a discount.

Despite the suit being thrown, Judge Gonzales did say that she was leaving open the possibility that the suit could have its time in the courts in the future under a complaint of ‘civil conspiracy committed by extortion’. That bone was apparently all Charles McCrea Jr., the Japanese gambling tycoon’s attorney, to tell the Review-Journal that such a course would be pursued in due time.

All’s not lost for Okada, though, as 19 other counts against Wynn, including claims of breach of contract, fraud and violating the company’s by laws are still in place, giving Okada hope that at least some of his lawsuits against his former BFF would be ruled in his favor.

Nevertheless, it’s still another blow to the beleaguered Japanese, who also lost a legal battle last week when a Tokyo court – the man’s backyard, no less! – dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by Okada against Wynn Resorts and its executives, saying that the case shouldn’t be handled by a Japanese tribunal.

Okada’s troubles these days aren’t’ just constrained to his blood feud with Steve Wynn. In the Philippines where his company, Tiger Resorts Entertainment, is building one of four casinos that will make up Pagcor’s Entertainment City, the Japanese is still under investigation for bribery, not to mention the charges slapped on him and a number of his constituents for violating the country’s Anti-Dummy law.

It hasn’t been a good year for Kazuo Okada on the legal front and while there’s still a chance that he could win some of these lawsuits in the end, the fact that he’s involved in so many paints a picture of a man who apparently doesn’t have any shortage in adversaries.