{"id":8701,"date":"2020-08-04T22:22:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T22:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=8701"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:04:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:04:46","slug":"imperial-pacific-execs-charged-over-illegal-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/imperial-pacific-execs-charged-over-illegal-workers","title":{"rendered":"Imperial Pacific execs charged over illegal workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The operator allegedly hired Chinese workers illegally for construction of the Grand Mariana Casino Hotel on Saipan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- Officials from Imperial Pacific International (IPI) and MCC International Saipan have been charged at the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liwen Wu, Yan Shi and Jianmin Xu face several criminal charges for breaching labour laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are accused of illegally hiring Chinese workers instead of US citizens or other foreign nationals for the construction of the Grand Mariana Casino Hotel on Saipan island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal prosecutors also allege the three executives transferred more than US$24 million to the US to promote their activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company appears to argue the hiring of Chinese workers who resided in Saipan illegally was to speed along construction, given that delay would land IPI with a fine under to the company\u2019s agreement with the CNMI government that granted it exclusive rights for a hotel and casino in Garapan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But prosecutors say the scheme was aimed at circumventing federal labour and immigration laws and reducing expenses. The firm, mired in legal battles<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, allegedly provided the workers with back stories and fake spouses who posed in exchange for a free vacation in the Northern Marina Islands in order to trick the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indictment, which dates from a year ago but was revealed to the public only now, says the scheme lasted from 2015 to 2017, when about 600 illegal workers were brought to the worksite and paid lower than mandatory wages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The operator allegedly hired Chinese workers illegally for construction of the Grand Mariana Casino Hotel on Saipan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Executives from Imperial Pacific International (IPI) and MCC International Saipan face criminal charges in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands for allegedly breaching labor and immigration laws. They are accused of illegally hiring approximately 600 Chinese workers at sub-mandatory wages for the Grand Mariana Casino Hotel construction on Saipan between 2015 and 2017, purportedly to circumvent federal regulations and reduce operational expenses.","focusai_entities":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI), MCC International Saipan, Liwen Wu, Yan Shi, Jianmin Xu, US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, CNMI government","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan, Garapan, US, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI Licensing Impact?","query":"What are the potential implications for Imperial Pacific International's gaming license and operational continuity in the Northern Mariana Islands following these criminal charges?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Scope?","query":"How might this case influence the scope and stringency of regulatory enforcement regarding labor and immigration compliance for other iGaming operators in emerging jurisdictions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[22674,4503,4024],"class_list":["post-8701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-ipi","tag-legal","tag-saipan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8701","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8708,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8701\/revisions\/8708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}