An online auction of various non-gaming assets belonging to troubled gaming operator Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC’s, including more than 6,000 bottles of liquor, is now live.
The extensive list of items available from court-appointed receiver Clear Management Ltd comprises “everything else apart from the building itself”, the company recently told Inside Asian Gaming, such as cars, trucks, passenger vans, limousines, kitchen equipment, laundry equipment, grand pianos and the Crystal Dragons that currently adorn the hotel lobby of Imperial Palace • Saipan.
Auction items can be viewed here.
Progression of the latest IPI-linked online auction comes after the District Court for the NMI recently granted the motion of former IPI director of operations Joshua Gray to provide Clear Management with access to the IPI’s liquor vault and other items in order to raise the funds to satisfy a US$5.69 million judgement against IPI in Gray’s favor. Gray previously won a litigation lawsuit against IPI for discrimination.
The countdown is also on for IPI pay US$62 million in outstanding license fees, with Saipan’s Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) having given the operator 30 days as of Monday 30 October 2023 to do so or face having its license revoked.
The regulator first filed five complaints against IPI in 2021 for failure to comply with certain requirements under its license agreement.
Those five complaints 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.
While IPI’s license has been suspended since April 2021, the company has been actively working to prevent full revocation – arguing that its failure to pay mandated fees was a result of force majeure. IPI’s casino was closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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