{"id":777023836,"date":"2025-03-07T09:47:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T12:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023836"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:04:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:04:46","slug":"cnmi-government-rejects-commonwealth-casino-commission-backpay-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cnmi-government-rejects-commonwealth-casino-commission-backpay-request","title":{"rendered":"CNMI government rejects Commonwealth Casino Commission backpay request"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It argues that the payment would be against the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- Finance secretary\u00a0Tracy B. Norita <\/strong>has said the attorney general’s office has told the Department of Finance not to remit the backpay of members of the Commonwealth Casino Commission. In February, CCC chairman\u00a0Edward C. Deleon Guerrero <\/strong>claimed that the government owed US$291,666 in outstanding payments to commissioners.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norita said payment cannot be made as the funding is contrary to the law since members of the CCC are not employees of the government and so paying them public funds cannot be seen as serving the public interest. She said public law 24-1 Schedule A changes the personnel funding for the CCC to zero. Norita emphasised that casino fees were created to pay commissioners so taxpayers did not have to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CCC has been without income since the closure of Imperial Pacific International (IPI), which halted casino operations in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the CCC has not collected its annual regulatory fee of US$3.15m, leading to 50 layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team King Investment wins bid for IPI casino assets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Team King Investment<\/strong>\u00a0has been named the winning bidder of the auction of\u00a0Imperial Pacific International\u2019s (IPI)<\/strong>\u00a0casino assets. It submitted\u00a0a bid of US$12.95m<\/strong>\u00a0plus an option to acquire the casino licence and assume certain liabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The auction was conducted by\u00a0Intrepid Investment Bankers\u00a0<\/strong>on February 26. IPI and its unsecured creditors had designated\u00a0Loi Lam Sit<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>the general manager of cosmetics distributor Top Pride International, as the stalking horse bidder. It made a\u00a0good faith deposit of US$1.25m<\/a>. Loi Lam Sit will now be the backup bidder. A hearing to evaluate Team King\u2019s bid is scheduled before bankruptcy judge Robert J. Faris on March 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It argues that the payment would be against the law.<\/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) in the Northern Mariana Islands faces a legal dispute over US$291,666 in backpay for commissioners, deemed unlawful by the Department of Finance as members are not government employees and funding was zeroed. Concurrently, the CCC has suffered US$3.15m in lost annual regulatory fees and layoffs since Imperial Pacific International (IPI) ceased operations in 2020. IPI's casino assets were recently auctioned, with Team King Investment winning the bid for US$12.95m plus the option to acquire the casino license and assume liabilities, pending bankruptcy court approval.","focusai_entities":"Tracy B. Norita, Attorney General\u2019s office, Department of Finance, Commonwealth Casino Commission, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Imperial Pacific International, Team King Investment, Intrepid Investment Bankers, Loi Lam Sit, Top Pride International, Robert J. Faris","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.98), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Stability?","query":"How will the Commonwealth Casino Commission secure sustainable funding and operational capacity given the cessation of IPI's regulatory fees and the legal dispute over commissioner compensation?"},{"label":"IPI License Transfer Impact?","query":"What are the regulatory implications and timeline for Team King Investment to acquire and operationalize IPI's casino license, and how will this affect the Northern Mariana Islands' gaming market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[21613],"class_list":["post-777023836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023836","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=777023836"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023847,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023836\/revisions\/777023847"}],"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=777023836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}