{"id":13737,"date":"2021-01-25T22:23:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T22:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=13737"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:24:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:24:01","slug":"cnmi-court-halts-ipis-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cnmi-court-halts-ipis-operations","title":{"rendered":"CNMI court halts IPI\u2019s operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IPI and its chairwoman, Cui Li Jie, have been found in contempt of court. An immediate stop-work order has been issued for a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- A federal court has ordered Imperial Pacific International<\/strong> (IPI) to halt operations for a week.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company and its chairwoman Cui Li Jie were found in contempt of court after Jie and former CEO Donald Browne were ordered to appear at federal court<\/a><\/em><\/strong> last week at an inquiry related to a lawsuit from the US Department of Labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US District Court for the NMI issued an immediate one week stop-work order<\/strong> to ensure the company’s exclusive casino licence in Saipan complies with sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sanctions <\/strong>include paying outstanding salaries totalling US$3m and a US$1.8 debt with the Department of Labour, restoring power and water to employee housing, and providing food to employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Browne was dismissed<\/strong> in the case. IPI administrative staff in charge of payroll, as well as security staff, were exempt from the stop-work order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A status conference<\/strong> will be held on January 28<\/strong> to discuss the possible lifting of the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, IPI received its third stop-order<\/strong> for construction work at its Garapan project.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IPI and its chairwoman, Cui Li Jie, have been found in contempt of court. An immediate stop-work order has been issued for a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) and its chairwoman, Cui Li Jie, have been found in contempt of court, resulting in an immediate one-week stop-work order for its Saipan casino operations. This action by the US District Court for the NMI ensures compliance with sanctions, including outstanding salary payments, debt to the Department of Labor, and employee welfare provisions. A status conference is scheduled for January 28 to discuss the order's potential lifting.","focusai_entities":"Imperial Pacific International, IPI, Cui Li Jie, Donald Browne, US Department of Labor, US District Court for the NMI","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, NMI, Saipan, Garapan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI's Future Operations?","query":"What specific conditions must Imperial Pacific International satisfy to lift the stop-work order and what are the long-term implications for its exclusive casino license in the NMI?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent?","query":"How might this federal court's enforcement action against IPI influence regulatory oversight and compliance expectations for other licensed operators within the US territories and beyond?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[14213,23632,23907],"class_list":["post-13737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-imperial-pacific","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13748,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13737\/revisions\/13748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}