Palacios: It’s time to put a finality

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios disclosed on Wednesday that Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC recently submitted a settlement offer to his office, but that he has doubts its legitimacy.

Palacios is also hoping that by tomorrow, Tuesday, the CCC board would make a decision one way or another whether to revoke or not IPI’s exclusive casino license.

“It’s time to put a finality [on thi],” he said in an interview.

The governor said IPI and CCC had a lot of hearings, including arbitration proceedings that went back and forth to the federal court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and that IPI even went to file a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court.

As this developed, IPI manager/director Howyo Chi and Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Andrew Yeom said that as of yesterday, they were still talking about coming up with a stipulated agreement regarding the settlement.

CCC board vice chair Rafael S. Demapan on Friday set a special meeting for tomorrow, Tuesday, for the commissioners to deliberate whether to revoke or not IPI’s exclusive casino license.

The special meeting will be held at CCC’s conference room at Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai at 10am.

CCC held a revocation hearing last Feb. 28 to March 1 on Yeom’s two complaints against IPI.

The first complaint was alleged violation of CCC’s order requiring IPI to maintain a minimum payroll reserves and other orders. The second complaint was IPI’s non-payment of $3.1 million in casino regulatory fee for 2020.

Included in the agenda of the special meeting, is for the commissioners, who are sitting as judges in the two complaints, to deliberate IPI’s motion to disqualify all commissioners from the case.

All interested persons will be afforded the opportunity to present oral testimony on any of the agenda items. Several lawmakers, mostly against IPI, are expected to share their testimony.

Demapan said all interested persons may submit data, views, or arguments in writing, on any of the agenda items.

Palacios, in an interview on Wednesday, said he has concerns about IPI’s settlement offer that was submitted to him a week and a half ago.

Palacios said one concern is how legitimate is that offer when the individual who designed that offer admitted in the middle of public revocation hearing, that IPI has no chief executive officer, has no chairman, and no chief financial officer.

“What is his legal authority to give us something…” said the governor, referring to IPI manager/director Chi.

Palacios questioned how genuine, how legitimate, and how valid is IPI’s offer.

Secondly, the governor said, CCC and IPI continued to go back and forth with these settlement discussions.

Palacios said the settlement offer has to go to CCC and the Office of Attorney General for review for validity and enforceability.

Palacios said the offer was an upfront payment of $15 million.

He said what is going to satisfy him is for IPI to pay the whole thing (arrears).

“Am I satisfied with $15 million [upfront]? No, absolutely not. Am I satisfied with $30 million? No, that’s only half. So, what is the plan?” said the governor, adding that he is going to leave it up to the CCC and OAG to come back with a recommendation and then he will make a decision.

IPI allegedly owes CCC and the CNMI government a total of $79,635,280 in annual license fee, annual regulatory fee, and penalties.

Palacios said what will satisfy everybody in the Commonwealth is for IPI to come up with a cashier’s check.

He said there should be no more offers by somebody that does not have a real handle on the validity of that signature and its authorized representative.

The governor said the CNMI cannot continue to go down the same road and make the same mistakes.