AS of Thursday, there was no settlement agreement between Imperial Pacific International and the Commonwealth Casino Commission.
“Right now, there is no settlement agreement — nothing has been signed right now,” said the commission’s acting executive director, Ian Morell, when asked by Commissioner Ramon M. Dela Cruz about the status of the negotiations with IPI.
Morell said discussions “kept going back and forth,” and recently, IPI “chose to make changes that we don’t agree with.”
As of Monday, there was still no settlement agreement between the commission and IPI.
The commission on Thursday also discussed IPI’s failure to pay its obligations including the annual exclusive casino license fee, the regulatory fee and the key employees’ license fee.
The commission’s chairman, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, said IPI has not paid its license fee for the years 2020 and 2021.
He said 15 days from Thursday, July 28, there will be another $15.5 million in license fee that is due for 2022. If IPI fails to pay, it will owe over $46 million in license fee alone, he added.
Deleon Guerrero also noted the mounting regulatory fees that IPI has continuously failed to pay.
He said IPI has been delinquent in paying the $2 million flat fee for its key employees. This year’s $3 million regulatory fee is due on Oct. 1, and the key employees fee will be due 63 days from July 28, “so 63 days from today, IPI will owe [the CNMI government] a total of $103 million,” Deleon Guerrero added.
IPI’s failure to meet these obligations are among the complaints that led the commission to schedule a license revocation hearing. Citing its ongoing negotiation with a South Korean investor, the IH Group, IPI filed in the U.S. District Court for the NMI a motion for a temporary restraining order, which the court granted.
The commission’s legal counsel, Keisha Blaise, told the commissioners on Thursday that the TRO was “technically” lifted on July 8, but she advised them not to discuss the matter in detail because there were still pending motions in the federal court.
Deleon Guerrero said the commission mainly relies on the $3 million annual regulatory fee while the $2 million flat fee for IPI’s key employees “is used to sustain the operation of the commission.”
IPI’s failure to meet these obligations, he added, “is the reason why we have cut back from close to 50 employees to, I believe we now only have nine.”
And that is also why “the [call for the] revocation [of IPI’s casino license] is in front of us,” he said.
During the meeting on Thursday, the commission approved a motion to accept the applications of IPI’s off-island attorneys for admission to practice in the CNMI. The U.S.-based attorneys are Kevin T. Abikoff, Daniel H. Weiner and Samuel W. Salyer.
Deleon Guerrero said the lawyers have submitted applications, license fees and certificates of good standing from their respective states.
The other commissioners present, aside from Deleon Guerrero and Dela Cruz, were the commission vice chairman, former Speaker Ralph Demapan, former Rep. Marion Taitano and Martin Mendiola of Rota.
Commonwealth Casino Commission members Martin Mendiola and Mario Taitano attend a meeting on Thursday.
Commonwealth Casino Commission Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero speaks during a meeting on Thursday.
