After spending three and a half hours listening to Kazuo Okada, the deposed founder of Japan’s Universal Entertainment and dispossessed co-founder of Wynn Resorts, and spending twice as many years following the saga of Okada and Universal versus Steve Wynn and Wynn Resorts, two things are clear: Okada is right, and Wynn is right.

A central feature of the dispute, Okada Manila opened two years ago as the third integrated resort in the Philippine capital’s Entertainment City district. The US$2 billion casino resort is the world’s first IR project to be solely owned and operated by a Japanese company, seen as potential advantage in the competition for a coveted casino license in Japan.

At a personal level, Okada Manila appears to be Okada’s response to his expulsion from Wynn, sung to the tune of Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better. Like Wynn Resorts’ creations, Okada Manila has a dancing fountain – Okada’s is bigger, according to experts – and the founder’s name on top. But Okada Manila doesn’t belong to Okada anymore.

At age 75, Okada is locked in a struggle for his corporate life with Universal Entertainment and his family over his 67.9% stake in the pachinko machine company that also owns Okada Manila. From its founding nearly 50 years ago, Universal was synonymous with Okada. But in May last year, Okada lost control of those shares when his son and daughter voted him out as chairman of Okada Holdings Limited, the Hong Kong company he created to help them avoid Japan’s inheritance taxes. Okada asserts his children’s actions violated company rules, and his daughter Hiromi now wants to reverse her vote and return control of the Universal shares (and therefore Universal) to Okada. Hong Kong courts are hearing at least four cases related to the vote. Separately, Universal is suing Okada in the Philippines, U.S. and Japan.

Okada claims that losing control of his shares was the culmination of a lengthy plot by Universal President Jun Fujimoto and his management allies to oust him as Universal chairman. A 2,940 word document from Okada’s team alleges a plot dating to 2012 on both sides of the Pacific to frame Okada. “His story is barely coherent, and not compelling,” Newpage Consulting Principal David Green, a former Australian state gaming regulator, says. “It seems to have been written by someone with a rich imagination.” Universal denies Okada’s allegations.

Nevertheless, much of what’s in Okada’s handout tracks information in other documents. The two sides disagree on the motives, but there’s agreement on much of what happened. Beyond the Reuters report of a $40 million payment to a former Pagcor chairman’s associate, millions more dollars reportedly moved from Universal to affiliates and third parties without clear business reasons. Universal says it was Okada manipulating corporate funds for personal benefit. Okada says it was Universal framing him.

The Okada-Universal conflict follows the Wynn-Okada clash. In February 2012, Wynn Resorts ousted Okada as vice chairman – he and Steve Wynn each put in half the capital to start the company after MGM bought Wynn’s Mirage Resorts and moved him out – and redeemed Universal’s 20% stake in the company at a US$900 million discount, payable over 10 years.

Wynn commissioned former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate Okada, and Freeh’s report provided a basis for removing him. In the report, Freeh declared that Universal granted Philippine officials improper hospitality at Wynn properties totaling US$110,000 over three years. Okada contends the grants of rooms, meals and gifts, coming to less than US$37,000 annually, conformed to standard industry practice. The consensus among casino business insiders agrees that Freeh’s findings made thin gruel. Okada is right to say he was wronged.

However, subsequent revelations from Universal and Okada confirm Steve Wynn was right: having Okada as Wynn Resorts’ vice chairman and Universal as its largest shareholder endangered the company’s Nevada gaming license. Wynn said the risk came from lax regulation in the Philippines, but in reality, the risks stemmed mainly from what was happening inside Universal. “Enough mud has been thrown to ensure that some of it sticks, and regulators generally do not like to entertain people of dubious repute,” Green says.

Steve Wynn, like Okada, now finds himself on the outside looking in at the company he founded. Confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct, Wynn resigned and sold his shares, completely severing ties with the company that bears his name. Okada, meanwhile, fights on to recover his shares in Universal and Wynn, and he says, his reputation.

“My guess is that this is going to take years to litigate and ultimately there will be a very expensive settlement,” Global Market Advisors Senior Partner Andrew Klebanow says. “Unlike Steve Wynn, who I believe will return for Act III,  I do not see an Act III for Kazuo Okada.”