Fight between casino moguls casts spotlight on FBI

New York

IN April 2015, a sworn statement submitted in a Nevada lawsuit between rival casino moguls Steve Wynn and Japan's Kazuo Okada contained an unusual assertion. Its author said that Wynn's head of security had asked to meet him in Japan and then persuaded him to travel to the US to talk to federal agents pursuing a different matter: a criminal bribery probe into Mr Okada.

The person who provided the statement, Yoshitaka Fujihara, then an executive at Mr Okada's Universal Entertainment Corp, said that he did not pay for his business-class flights, lodging and meals for two meetings with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in California. Wynn Resorts has since acknowledged covering those costs and making other arrangements for Mr Fujihara, as well as other potential witnesses, to meet with the FBI.