A board meeting to determine whether the casino license of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC will be permanently revoked has been postponed until May.
The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) of the CNMI had previously planned to hold discussions in March to determine IPI’s fate, but the date has now been delayed by two months after the casino operator requested additional time to fly its legal team out from the United States.
CC Executive Director Andrew Yeom told the Saipan Tribune that he did not oppose the request as it was IPI’s final opportunity to state its case.
“I guess they understand that this is the final one. This is a revocation hearing. This is their final chance to comply,” Yeom said, adding that he didn’t want to give the company any opportunity to file a complaint should revocation be the recommended course of action.
“Because if they complained that we didn’t give them due time, due process, [we want] the judge [to be able to say], hell no, they gave you every single right, as possible, but yet you’re the one who couldn’t comply.”
It was Yeom who originally filed five complaints against IPI in April 2021 for failure to comply with certain requirements under its license agreement.
Those five complaints specifically related to IPI’s failure to pay its annual US$15.5 million license fee in August 2020, failure to pay its annual US$3.1 million regulatory fee in October 2020, failure to contribute US$20 million to the community benefit fund in both 2018 and 2019, failure to comply with its minimum US$2 billion capital requirement and failure to comply with a CCC order to pay all money owing to its vendors.
IPI’s license was suspended in May 2021 and the company given six months to pay both the US$15.5 million casino license fee and US$3.1 million regulatory fee, as well as a US$6.6 million fine.
Its Saipan casino, Imperial Palace · Saipan, has been closed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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