Embattled Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International has offered to transfer its casino license to a new investor and leave the island peacefully under the terms of a new settlement agreement it reached last week with the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC).
It also agreed to give up the exclusivity of the license to pay US$31 million in arrears license payments and US$16 million for the lifting of its license suspension in a bid to avoid having the license revoked entirely. However, that proposal has been rejected by CNMI Governor Arnold Palacios following the conclusion of last week’s revocation hearing.
In comments reported by local media outlet Marianas Variety, IPI Director Howyo Chi told last week’s hearing, “IPI is looking for a way to settle this amicably. It’s not our intention to go through this messy revocation process that could drag on for years to come.”
He added that the CCC “is amenable to our offer to leave the island and transfer the license. We are just frustrated that the governor appears to have stuck to this messy litigation. We want to settle this as swiftly and peacefully as possible.”
The long-delayed revocation hearing was held after IPI’s license was suspended in April 2021 due to the CCC filing five complaints against it for 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.
The company has since been involved in multiple litigation battles with former partners and recently sued the CCC and Governor Palacios for breaching the casino license agreement.
With the revocation hearing between CCC and IPI now concluded, the regulator will now hold a public hearing within 30 days to determine the fate of IPI’s license, Marianas Variety said.
On the governor’s decision to reject the current IPI proposal, IPI legal counsel Michael Chen said,
“When we were negotiating strictly with CCC, without the governor’s counsel, without the governor’s presence, we had a framework developed that was agreeable between CCC and IPI. CCC was supposed to present it to the governor, but we never got an answer from the governor until one day he came in and said that he would like to see all the proposals and make his own decision.
“it is quite frustrating that we keep negotiating and not able to get something in return, something that is agreeable. So far we have not been able to get that.”
Chen also revealed that IPI entered into a memorandum of agreement with Kyosei Bank Group to fully take over IPI’s assets, including the casino license, in a deal that would also see the new owner agree to make its license non-exclusive.
RelatedPosts
