POTENTIAL buyers from Dubai and Saudi Arabia have shown interest in Imperial Pacific International’s two crystal dragons, Clear Management LLC’s principal Tim Shepherd said.
Clear Management, the federal court-appointed receiver, has recently concluded the auction of IPI’s 11 vehicles, including two Rolls Royce sedans that received a total bid of $332,000.
“The vehicle auction was a success, and all vehicles were sold for prices over the reserves we set,” Shepherd told Variety on Saturday.
“The winning bidders must pay 100% of the winning bid into the Trust Account held for IPI’s creditors by April 19th, and the court must approve those winning bids before title can change hands,” he added.
“With respect to the two crystal dragons, we have interest in particular from Dubai and a group in Saudi Arabia have reached out to discuss further. … [T]he closing date is August 22nd— we expected a longer lead time than for the vehicles sold within [the] CNMI,” Shepherd said.
The starting bid for the two crystal dragons, including a pearl, is $500,000, he added.
“By the way, we only auctioned 11 vehicles. IPI has 100+ in their fleet including VIP passenger vans, limos, construction cranes and trucks. The next auction for the vehicles will be June 6th,” Shepherd said.
The IPI vehicles that were auctioned included two 2017 Rolls Royce Ghost sedans, a 2017 Cadillac Escalade, a 2016 Toyota Sienna, a 2015 Lexus RX 450h Hybrid, a 2015 Nissan Frontier, a 2016 Mazda CX-5, a 2015 Toyota RAV4, a 2015 Toyota Yaris, and a 2014 Toyota Yaris.
As of press time Sunday, there was no information as to what will happen to IPI’s unfinished hotel-casino building in Garapan.
On Oct. 26, 2021, the District Court for the NMI appointed Clear Management as the limited receiver to liquidate IPI’s casino gaming equipment.
IPI owes judgment creditors in federal and local courts a total of $21.1 million, including the tax lien held by the CNMI Division of Revenue and Taxation against it.
According to the Commonwealth Casino Commission, IPI also owes the CNMI government and CCC $79.62 million in unpaid annual exclusive casino license fees and regulatory fees plus fines and penalties.
CCC said it will render a final ruling on IPI’s exclusive casino license on April 22.
