Casino and junket operator Jack Lam likely won’t face charges for attempting to bribe Philippine officials, but he’ll be made to pay in other ways.

On Wednesday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II publicly accused Lam (pictured), founder of the Jimei Group junket and operator of the Fontana Casino in the Clark Freeport Zone, of offering Aguirre a bribe to release the 1,316 Chinese nationals arrested last week for illegally working at an unauthorized online gambling operation on the Fontana property.

On Thursday, Aguirre told reporters that he didn’t plan to pursue bribery charges against Lam or retired police superintendent Wally Sombrero, through whom Lam’s alleged bribe was made. Aguirre had claimed that Sombrero asked if Aguirre would act as Lam’s ‘godfather’ to protect his online gambling operations.

Aguirre clarified that neither Sombrero nor Lam had actually offered him cash in exchange for becoming a godfather, and thus it wasn’t clear the offer/request met the legal standard of an “overt act of bribery.” Aguirre also noted that Lam speaks neither English nor Filipino, so it would be hard to prove he understood what Sombrero was saying.