Wynn Resorts has bought out its largest shareholder and asked him to quit the board of directors.

A month after Wynn Resorts Ltd.’s biggest shareholder claimed the company was blocking him from accessing its books, the casino operator says it has uncovered allegedly improper payments made by Kazuo Okada to Philippine gambling officials.

In a company statement, Wynn announced that its Compliance Committee had concluded a year-long investigation of Mr Okada.

The Compliance Committee is chaired by former Nevada governor Robert Miller and includes Louis Freeh, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other members.

According to the report, “Mr Okada and his associates and companies appear to have engaged in a longstanding practice of making payments and gifts to his two chief gaming regulators at the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), who directly oversee and regulated Mr Okada’s provisional licensing agreement to operate in that country.”

“These troubling discoveries include cash payments and gifts totalling approximately US$110,000 (MOP880,000) to foreign gaming regulators.”

According to the report, Mr Okada made statements to Wynn Resorts’ directors that gifts to regulators are permissible in Asia.

The report further stated that Mr Okada and his associates have “consciously taken active measures to conceal both the nature and amount of these payments.”

Following the investigation, the company took possession of the 24 million shares owned by Mr Okada. These shares were redeemed at “fair value” and the decision was meant to protect the company’s gaming licenses, according to the report.

Wynn commissioned an independent financial advisor assist in the fair value calculation and “concluded that a discount to the current trading price was appropriate because of restrictions on most of the shares which are subject to the terms of an existing stockholder agreement” between Mr Okada, Steve Wynn and his ex-wife Elaine.

As such, Wynn Resorts issued a 10-year US$1.9 billion promissory note in redemption of the shares. The note matures on February 18, 2022 and bears interest at the annual rate of 2 percent.

Last month, Mr Okada sued Wynn Resorts to force the company to produce spending records. That case is pending. Mr Okada says he opposed Wynn Resorts’ HK$1 billion (US$129 million) pledge in July 2011 to the University of Macau Development Foundation.