IPI now owes CCC and the CNMI gov’t $76.5M

With Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC now owing the CNMI government and the Commonwealth Casino Commission a combined $76.5 million, CCCC board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero believes the exclusive Saipan casino licensee is now “a done deal.”

Speaking at the CCC monthly board meeting yesterday at the Springs Plaza Building, DeLeon Guerrero said that IPI will have a better chance of winning the Powerball Lottery than the U.S. Supreme Court actually hearing their case in connection with the CCC’s complaints.

“It’s just my humble opinion. That’s very remote. So we are back to say, that’s a done deal,” he said.

As of August 2023, IPI reportedly now owes the CNMI government $62 million in casino license fees and the CCC $14.5 million in outstanding fees.

With respect to the annual casino license fee, IPI reportedly owes $15,502,570 each from August 2020 to August 2023—for a total of $62,010,280.

In the case of the CCC, IPI allegedly owes the casino commission $3,150,000 in annual casino regulatory fees from October 2020 to October 2023, $5 million in consolidated fines/penalties, $94,068 in arbitration costs, $25,000 in unpaid obligations—for a total of $14,569,068.

DeLeon Guerrero recounted that they first issued orders against IPI in 2020 and those orders ended up in hearings, with the hearings resulting in some CCC orders and imposition of fines. Those fines were subsequently appealed to the Superior Court and Associate Judge Wesley Bogdan has affirmed the CCC’s ruling. IPI then decided to appeal to the CNMI Supreme Court and that the latter issued its final decision last week.

“It’s been a long journey that has finally come to hopefully a final destination,” DeLeon Guerrero said.

In his plain reading of the CNMI high court’s decision, he said it basically says that whatever amounts the statute requires regarding the annual exclusive license fee and the annual regulatory fee, those are due and they continue to accrue.

He said the CCC has now to consider a reasonable time for IPI to make those payments.

However, DeLeon Guerrero said, the CNMI Supreme Court concludes that since COVID-19 was in effect, preceded by Super Typhoon Yutu, that penalty should be stricken out because they had a reasonable explanation as to whether or not they will be able to pay on time.

He said the penalty that they imposed for the late payment and the penalty that they imposed for delay in the payments to the Community Benefit Fund will have to be stricken out.

The chair said all the other imposed penalties were affirmed.

“So the CCC, in my humble opinion, has prevailed. It has been a long journey. And it strengthened the statute,” he said.

DeLeon Guerrero said now they would consider establishing a date for a possible hearing to determine a payment schedule that is reasonable.

DeLeon Guerrero also discussed the background of CCC’s case against IPI that went to arbitration and subsequently to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

He said that since IPI did not prevail in its appeal to the Ninth Circuit, procedurally the next step that IPI could take, if they decide to do so, is to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. He does not believe the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the case.

He said IPI should seriously look at its obligations.

The chair said the CNMI Supreme Court has already given the CCC the authority to proceed with scheduling a reasonable time for payment.