Saipan casino to replace CEO Mark Brown

His resignation came after a raid of the FBI into Imperial Pacific offices and days after the exit of the Company’s lawyer.

Saipan.- Casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) is not reaching the end of the year in the most accurate situation. Its CEO, Mark Brown, abruptly resigned this weekend a month after FBI agents raided IPI’s offices. The raid was part of a federal investigation into alleged wire fraud, money laundering and illegal campaign contributions involving Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Governor Ralph Torres.

Last week, IPI’s general counsel Philip Tydingco also delivered his resignation and informed that December 13th would be his last day on the job. His role would be filled by Joey Patrick San Nicolas, who served as CNMI attorney general from 2012 to 2014.

Tydingco had joined IPI in August 2017 after working for some time as Guam’s deputy attorney general. He has not publicly commented on the reason for his departure yet. However, it seems to be a consequence of the investigations. FBI raids took place on a number of locations on Saipan, including offices which belonged to both IPI and Torres.

Before leaving, Tyndingco was able to convince US District Court Judge Ramona Manglona to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Pacific Rim Land Development, a contractor which accused IPI of not paying US$5.65 million owed for work Pacific Rim did on IPI’s incomplete Imperial Palace Resort. Also, Pacific Rim asked the court to put a mechanic’s lien on the property to force IPI to pay up.

Mark Brown was IPI’s original CEO and in early 2017 became its chairman. But one year later, Brown left the company entirely to “pursue other projects close to his family”. He returned in late 2018 as interim chairman an soon took the place of CEO.