{"id":777009789,"date":"2023-10-02T10:15:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T13:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777009789"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:35:02","slug":"saipan-investor-may-be-willing-to-finish-ipis-casino-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/saipan-investor-may-be-willing-to-finish-ipis-casino-resort","title":{"rendered":"Saipan investor may be willing to finish IPI&#8217;s casino resort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The new investor would not pay IPI&#8217;s debts to the government and the Commonwealth Casino Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Northern Mariana Islands.-\u00a0<strong>Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero<\/strong>, the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) board chair, has revealed that a potential investor has expressed a willingness to invest in completing Imperial Pacific International (IPI)&#8217;s unfinished casino resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a CCC board meeting, DeLeon Guerrero said the prospective investor is prepared to take on the task but would not pay the CCC and CNMI fees that IPI owes: US$62m in casino licence fees owed to the CNMI government and US$14.5m in regulatory fees owed to CCC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guerrero asserted that if IPI lacks the funds to fulfil its financial obligations and complete the resort, it should forfeit its casino licence. During the same meeting,\u00a0<strong>Martin Mendiola<\/strong>\u00a0from Rota and<strong>\u00a0Ramon M. Dela Cruz\u00a0<\/strong>from Tinian, proposed that the CNMI government work with IPI to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/two-ccc-members-urge-cnmi-to-work-with-ipi\" target=\"_blank\">revive the islands\u2019 casino sector<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mendiola emphasized the need to find a solution that would revive the casino industry in order to benefit the CNMI. According to Mariana\u2019s Variety, he said: \u201cLet\u2019s move the industry forward. Let\u2019s put our heads together. Let\u2019s come up with a possible best option together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dela Cruz suggested that a settlement should be explored to provide IPI with the necessary leeway to recover. He highlighted the potential difficulties in collecting from IPI should the CCC revoke its exclusive casino licence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new investor would not pay IPI&#8217;s debts to the government and the Commonwealth Casino Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A potential investor has expressed interest in completing Imperial Pacific International's unfinished casino resort in the Northern Mariana Islands, but explicitly refuses to assume IPI's US$76.5 million in outstanding license and regulatory fees. This development places the Commonwealth Casino Commission and the CNMI government at a critical juncture regarding IPI's exclusive casino licence and the future of the islands' gaming vertical.","focusai_entities":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI), Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero, Martin Mendiola, Ramon M. Dela Cruz","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Rota, Tinian","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI License Forfeiture?","query":"What are the specific legal and regulatory mechanisms the CCC can employ to compel IPI to forfeit its exclusive casino licence, and what precedent would this set for future distressed operators in emerging jurisdictions?"},{"label":"Investor Debt Assumption?","query":"Given the potential investor's refusal to assume IPI's US$76.5 million debt, what innovative financial or regulatory frameworks could the CNMI government and CCC explore to facilitate the resort's completion while recovering outstanding fees?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[24134],"class_list":["post-777009789","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\/777009789","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=777009789"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777041225,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777009789\/revisions\/777041225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777009789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777009789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777009789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}