Court approves IPI assets sale to Team King Investment

Team King Investment made an offer worth US$12.95m.

Northern Mariana Islands.- District Court for the NMI bankruptcy judge Robert J. Faris has approved the sale of Imperial Pacific International (IPI)’s assets to Team King Investment, the winning bidder of a court-supervised auction held on February 26. Team King had made a cash offer of US$12.95m plus an option to acquire the casino licence and assume certain liabilities.

The Northern Mariana Islands government and the committee of IPI’s unsecured creditors objected to the sale, arguing that the winner was an insider. However, a stipulation agreed between IPI, its creditors’ committee, the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) and key secured claimants led to the withdrawal of objections in exchange for a court-approved distribution plan. This includes US$5m allocated to the CNMI Division of Revenue and Taxation (CNMI DRT) and US$1.5m to secured creditors, with any remaining funds to be held in trust by an escrow agent.

IPI also agreed to dismiss its appeal of a judgment in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals relating to the case of Joshua Gray, a former director of operations who won a discrimination lawsuit against the casino operator. It also agreed to dismiss pending cases relating to its annual casino licence fee and casino regulatory fee.