{"id":777012784,"date":"2024-01-31T08:41:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T11:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777012784"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:29:23","slug":"ipi-licence-revocation-hearing-rescheduled-for-february-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ipi-licence-revocation-hearing-rescheduled-for-february-12","title":{"rendered":"IPI licence revocation hearing rescheduled for February 12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) has postponed the hearing due to ongoing settlement talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The\u00a0Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC)\u00a0<\/strong>has rescheduled the hearing on the revocation of Imperial Pacific International (IPI)’s exclusive casino licence from January 31 to February 12. CCC’s executive director,\u00a0Andrew Yeom<\/strong>, said ongoing settlement discussions with IPI were the reason for the delay.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue is IPI’s failure to pay its US$15.5m annual casino licence fee and US$3.15m in annual regulatory fees for the years 2020 to 2023. The accumulated debts to the CNMI government now surpass US$62m in casino licence fees and US$17.6m in regulatory fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeom said there had been progress in settlement talks, which include IPI’s initiative to dismiss civil claims.\u00a0He said an emergency meeting would be needed to confirm any settlement and request action on lifting the licence suspension order.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, IPI took legal action<\/a>\u00a0against the islands\u2019 governor,\u00a0Arnold I. Palacios<\/strong>, and the CCC. In an amended complaint filed in federal court, the company seeks a jury trial, claiming unconstitutional impairment of contract, violation of the contract clause of the US and CNMI constitutions, violation of the takings clause of the US Constitution, violation of the due process clauses of the US and CNMI Constitutions and breach of the casino licence agreement (CLA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit argues that the imposition of the annual regulatory fees statute constitutes a substantial and unconstitutional impairment of the CLA. However, assistant attorney general\u00a0Keisha Blaise<\/strong>, who represents the CCC, filed a 24-page motion to dismiss the lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) has postponed the hearing due to ongoing settlement talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777012806,"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) has postponed the hearing for Imperial Pacific International (IPI)'s exclusive casino license revocation due to ongoing settlement discussions. IPI faces over US$79.6 million in unpaid license and regulatory fees and has filed a lawsuit against the CNMI government, alleging constitutional violations and breach of contract, which the CCC is moving to dismiss.","focusai_entities":"Commonwealth Casino Commission, Imperial Pacific International, Andrew Yeom, Arnold I. Palacios, Keisha Blaise","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Settlement Terms Impact?","query":"What are the specific terms of the proposed settlement between IPI and the CCC, and how do they address the accumulated US$79.6 million debt and ongoing legal claims?"},{"label":"Legal Precedent Analysis?","query":"What is the legal precedent for IPI's claims of unconstitutional impairment of contract and due process violations, and what is the likelihood of these arguments prevailing in federal court?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[21613,24134],"class_list":["post-777012784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission","tag-imperial-pacific-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777012784","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=777012784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777012784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777012793,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777012784\/revisions\/777012793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777012806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777012784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777012784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777012784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}