{"id":777003527,"date":"2023-03-21T13:20:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T16:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777003527"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:34:13","slug":"ipi-still-seeking-investors-to-fund-garapan-casino-reopening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ipi-still-seeking-investors-to-fund-garapan-casino-reopening","title":{"rendered":"IPI still seeking investors to fund Garapan casino reopening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The majority owner of Imperial Pacific International has said the company hopes to find a new investor who can help it reopen its Garapan casino resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Northern Mariana Islands.- <strong>Cui Lijie<\/strong>, the majority owner of Imperial Pacific International (IPI), says she is seeking new investors to help reopen the operator&#8217;s Garapan casino resort. In an interview with Mariana&#8217;s Variety, she admitted that investor interest had fallen off due to negative stories about IPI but said the company was doing all it can to improve the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lijie noted that <strong>IPI has spent more than US$20m to settle lawsuits filed <\/strong>by former vendors and employees. She added that the company wants to meet its obligations to the government but that it believed the government should also acknowledge that IPI has not earned any revenue for the past three years due to its casino&#8217;s closure amid the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lijie said IPI could help promote the islands in Japan and South Korea once it is able to move forward with its casino business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this month, the&nbsp;<strong>Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC)&nbsp;<\/strong>chairman&nbsp;<strong>Edward C. Deleon Guerrero<\/strong>&nbsp;said that&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ipi-owes-over-us55-4m-in-fees-to-ccc\" target=\"_blank\">IPI owes over US$55.4m<\/a>&nbsp;in unpaid licence and regulatory fees. It has not paid its fees since its casino closed in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, <strong>Clear Management<\/strong>, the court-appointed receiver in charge of selling off IPI&#8217;s gaming equipment, is awaiting&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/clear-management-seeks-release-of-us35k-in-commission-from-ipi-auctions\" target=\"_blank\">the release of more than US$35,000 in commissions<\/a>&nbsp;earned from its latest auctions of the casino operator&#8217;s gaming equipment,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last May, IPI reported that it had signed&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/imperial-pacific-claims-its-signed-a-deal-with-ih-group\" target=\"_blank\">a memorandum of agreement<\/a>&nbsp;with&nbsp;<strong>South Korea\u2019s IH Group<\/strong>&nbsp;to secure funding to help it reopen its casino in Garapan and pay some of its obligations, including payroll and outstanding payables to vendors. However, so far there has been no news regarding the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The majority owner of Imperial Pacific International has said the company hopes to find a new investor who can help it reopen its Garapan casino resort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19434,"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's (IPI) majority owner, Cui Lijie, is actively seeking new investors to facilitate the reopening of its Garapan casino resort, citing significant financial obligations including over US$55.4 million in unpaid license fees and US$20 million in lawsuit settlements. The company faces challenges from negative publicity and a lack of revenue since 2020, despite a prior, unconfirmed funding agreement with South Korea's IH Group. A court-appointed receiver, Clear Management, is concurrently liquidating IPI's gaming equipment.","focusai_entities":"Imperial Pacific International, Cui Lijie, Commonwealth Casino Commission, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Clear Management, IH Group","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Garapan, Japan, South Korea","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Enforcement Timeline","query":"What specific enforcement actions or deadlines has the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) outlined for Imperial Pacific International regarding its outstanding license and regulatory fees?"},{"label":"Investor Due Diligence","query":"What enhanced due diligence and governance framework assurances would a prospective investor require given IPI's history of financial distress and regulatory non-compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[24134],"class_list":["post-777003527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-imperial-pacific-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003527","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=777003527"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777003565,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777003527\/revisions\/777003565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777003527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777003527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777003527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}