In her letter to Casino Commission Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, chamber president Velma Palacios said IPI should be held “to the same standards as the rest of our business community in practicing good corporate [citizenship] and governance.”
Aside from the several lawsuits filed against it in local and federal courts, IPI also faces numerous complaints in the casino commission, the Department of Public Works and the Legislature.
The unpaid employees of IPI have also staged protest actions.
Palacios said the chamber understands the difficulties that businesses face in the Commonwealth.
“Our goal is to help both local and outside investors thrive in the CNMI, as their success is our collective success. As businesses operating in the CNMI, we should all be held accountable for our rippling impacts on our community,” Palacios added.
“Just as IPI’s ability to positively contribute to our economic success is great, when agreements and laws are not honored, the negative impacts of misconduct are greatly damaging,” she said.
Palacios said the recent IPI decision to deposit escrow fees into attorney’s accounts to avoid its assets from being auctioned in federal court, instead of paying IPI employees is something that the Saipan Chamber of Commerce
“cannot continue to condone.”
According to Palacios, “No investor that touts a $7 billion casino investment should have any difficulty completing their first phase of development and paying their past due payroll, taxes, and fees timely ⸺ even in a pandemic.”
She said the chamber is asking the casino commission chairman “to hold IPI accountable in [doing] right by their employees, their creditors, their vendors, and complete Phase 1 of their project timely, as was agreed upon in their initial $7 billion in investment. This investment was a promise to our community, and it ensures our collective success.”
Variety was unable to get a comment from IPI.
