The exhausting saga around failed Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC could be about to come to an end.
Local media outlet Marianas Variety is reporting this morning that the Official Committee of General Unsecured Creditors – a group representing companies and individuals owed money by Imperial Pacific (IPI) – has asked the federal court to approve a “structured dismissal” that would formally close the company’s long-running Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
IPI, which never completed full construction of its Saipan casino resort Imperial Palace, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2024 owing US$141.6 million to multiple creditors, including the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), CNMI Treasury, main contractor MCC International plus former employees and multiple contractors and suppliers.
The request for a structured dismissal was filed by the Official Committee of General Unsecured Creditors on 20 July and calls on the court to dismiss the case once all remaining funds are distributed via a court-approved “waterfall.”
The hearing is scheduled for 4 August 2026, according to the Marianas Variety report.
If the motion is approved, the Chapter 11 case will officially end, IPI’s casino license will be formally revoked and remaining funds distributed. However, all previous bankruptcy orders, including a 2025 sale order that saw Team King Investment (CNMI) LLC win a bid to acquire the casino assets of IPI, would remain in effect.
The report also reveals a concession in the filing by the creditor group after the U.S. Trustee disagreed over legal protections that had been offered to the group itself, to IPI and to lawyers and advisers involved in the bankruptcy against future lawsuits relating to decisions made while administering the bankruptcy.
The Official Committee of General Unsecured Creditors has instead agreed to narrowing the clause so that it does not cover acts of willful misconduct, gross negligence, fraud or criminal acts.
Marianas Variety noted that dismissal by the court would “the final chapter in IPI’s long-running financial collapse.”
IPI’s financial woes began after its casino was shuttered in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and gained pace the following year when the CCC suspended its casino license for failure to comply with certain requirements under its license agreement. These included 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.
This sparked an ongoing battle between the regulator and IPI over the status of its casino license and the payment of debts.
A receiver was appointed in late 2021 and many of the company’s assets – most famously the crystal dragons that adorned the hotel at Imperial Palace and the company’s collection of Rolls Royce’s – were later auctioned off.
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