{"id":34028,"date":"2022-10-03T10:46:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T13:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=34028"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:19:43","slug":"ccc-no-funds-for-arbitration-with-ipi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ccc-no-funds-for-arbitration-with-ipi","title":{"rendered":"CCC: no funds for arbitration with IPI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commission chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero has asked for funding for the court-mandated arbitration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) has said that its economic problems mean that it doesn’t have the funds to cover court-mandated arbitration with the casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona<\/strong> has granted IPI\u2019s request for arbitration in its dispute<\/a> with the CCC over its force majeure defence for non-payment of casino licence fees. However, commission chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero<\/strong> said the CCC has turned to governor Ralph DLG Torres to ask for funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deleon Guerrero did not mention the amount needed but said the committee would discuss it in an executive meeting. He noted that the casino licence agreement with IPI expressly states that the force majeure defence does not apply to revocation proceedings involving gaming-related violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the committee must comply with the federal court order but that he believed non-binding arbitration would be a waste of time and money because since whoever wins can still the matter to court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPI, which shut its casino in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, now owes over $9m in unpaid regulatory fees and $46m in unpaid license fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, Commonwealth Casino Commissioner Martin Mendiola<\/strong> said the regulator was \u201cat the finish line of its budget\u201d<\/a> and that the commission was \u201cthe real victim\u201d of the federal court\u2019s temporary restraining order that prevents it from pursuing the revocation of Imperial Pacific International\u2019s exclusive casino licence for its failure to meet its obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Mariana\u2019s Variety, from an original team of 50, the regulator is down to just 10 employees<\/strong>. The commission is reported to have less than $300,000, which may last only until November. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commission chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero has asked for funding for the court-mandated arbitration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26855,"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 Casino Commission (CCC) is facing severe financial distress, lacking funds for court-mandated arbitration with Imperial Pacific International (IPI) over $55 million in unpaid license and regulatory fees. This dispute centers on IPI's force majeure defense, which the CCC chairman argues is invalid under the license agreement, while a federal court order currently prevents license revocation. The CCC's precarious financial state, with less than $300,000, threatens its operational viability and regulatory oversight capacity.","focusai_entities":"Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), Imperial Pacific International (IPI), Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Ramona V. Manglona, Ralph DLG Torres, Martin Mendiola","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Impact","query":"What specific governance framework adjustments or legislative interventions are being considered to ensure the Commonwealth Casino Commission's long-term fiscal solvency and its capacity to enforce regulatory compliance effectively?"},{"label":"IPI License Revocation","query":"Given the explicit clause regarding force majeure not applying to gaming-related violations, what is the legal pathway and timeline for the Commonwealth Casino Commission to overcome the federal court's temporary restraining order and proceed with Imperial Pacific International's license revocation?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154],"tags":[21613,24134],"class_list":["post-34028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission","tag-imperial-pacific-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34028","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=34028"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34036,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34028\/revisions\/34036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}