{"id":18517,"date":"2021-06-01T16:11:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T16:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=18517"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:01:10","slug":"cnmi-warns-imperial-pacific-to-pay-debts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cnmi-warns-imperial-pacific-to-pay-debts","title":{"rendered":"CNMI warns Imperial Pacific to pay debts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ralph Torres, governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, has said that if IPI doesn’t pay its arrears, the government will take \u201cthe next step.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.-\u00a0Governor Ralph Torres\u00a0<\/strong>has warned that if Imperial Pacific does not settle its debts, the government will \u201ctake the next step and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Saipan Tribune newspaper, Torres said: \u201cAs of now,\u00a0I hope they can take care of their arrears\u00a0<\/strong>and continue to do business here. But if not, then we have to take the next step and we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Island has ordered\u00a0IPI to pay $5.9m<\/strong>\u00a0after ruling in favour of seven Chinese workers<\/strong>\u00a0who suffered mistreatment from the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That comes on top of multiple penalties<\/a>\u00a0the Commonwealth Casino Commission board already ordered IPI to pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), Imperial Pacific International violated five orders <\/strong>including a failure to pay its US$3.1m annual regulatory fee <\/strong>in 2020 and failure to comply with an order to settle debts<\/strong> with vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commonwealth Casino Commission has\u00a0ordered the suspension of Imperial Pacific International\u2019s gaming licence<\/strong>\u00a0until the company meets the required payments. Imperial Pacific<\/a>\u00a0has appealed against the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan T. Lizama, IPI\u2019s lawyer, filed the appeal, and the CCC commissioners have agreed to make a technical amendment<\/strong> to the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Saipan Tribune newspaper, assistant attorney general Michael Ernest, counsel for CCC executive director Andrew Yeom, reported a technical error in the CCC board\u2019s order against IPI<\/strong>. Ernest asked the board to reconsider the final order<\/strong> to correct the error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commonwealth Casino Regulator faces economic crisis due to Covid-19<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The CCC is facing a\u00a0budget crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic<\/strong>. Saipan’s only casino has been closed due to the pandemic<\/strong>\u00a0and licence fees and arrears have still not been paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media, board chair\u00a0Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero<\/strong>\u00a0has warned if the crisis continues, the CCC will have to cut some positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities are seeking to\u00a0approve online gaming<\/a>\u00a0but some doubts remain as Representative Tina Sablan argues that it could lead to money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sablan <\/strong>opposed a request for House Bill 22-47 to be pulled out from the Gaming Committee <\/strong>so the full House of Representatives could act on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: \u201cThere are serious concerns that are raised by this internet gaming bill that were concerns in the last legislature. Those issues have not gone away and they are the subject of investigation<\/strong> right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, former vice-speaker Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero<\/strong> has argued online gaming has no greater risk <\/strong>and could help generate revenue for the CNMI following the closure of the casino industry for many months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guerrero said: \u201cThis is another form [of gaming] that we should tap because there\u2019s a lot of investors willing to open [internet] gaming<\/strong>, but [in the] absence of a piece of legislation, no investors would want to invest here in the CNMI. This is something that we should look at thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ralph Torres, governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, has said that if IPI doesn’t pay its arrears, the government will take \u201cthe next step.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands government is pressuring Imperial Pacific International (IPI) to settle significant debts, including regulatory fees and worker compensation, following the suspension of its gaming license. Concurrently, the Commonwealth Casino Commission faces a budget crisis, prompting discussions on legalizing online gaming as a new revenue stream, despite concerns over potential money laundering risks.","focusai_entities":"Ralph Torres, Imperial Pacific International, Commonwealth Casino Commission, Juan T. Lizama, Michael Ernest, Andrew Yeom, Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero, Tina Sablan, Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero","focusai_location":"Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI's Financial Viability?","query":"What is the Commonwealth Casino Commission's contingency plan should Imperial Pacific International fail to meet its financial obligations and what are the implications for the CNMI's gaming revenue projections?"},{"label":"Online Gaming Framework?","query":"What specific regulatory and governance frameworks are being considered to mitigate money laundering risks and ensure responsible gaming if online gaming is legalized in the CNMI?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[23908,14213],"class_list":["post-18517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-gaming-regulation","tag-imperial-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18547,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517\/revisions\/18547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}