The CNMI Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investments Ltd., owner of Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, for allegedly not complying with their settlement agreement for failing to pay $416,241.37 in liquidated damages that were assessed for non-payment of wages to Dynasty\u2019s over 500 current and former workers.<\/p>\n
Assistant attorney general Michael Witry, counsel for Labor, asked the Superior Court to register their consent judgment as a court judgment.<\/p>\n
In Labor\u2019s complaint, Witry requested the court to issue an order in aid of judgment, providing for the transfer of particular Dynasty assets at a price to be determined by the court.<\/p>\n
As alternative, Witry asked the court to order for the sale of particular Dynasty assets and payment of the net proceeds to Labor.<\/p>\n
Another option, Witry said, is a court order for payments, in specified installments on particular dates or at specified intervals, or for any other method of payments, which the court deems just.<\/p>\n
Witry asked the court to issue any other order necessary to enforce the stipulated settlement and consent judgment.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 23, 2016, Labor and HKE entered into a stipulated settlement and consent judgment in labor enforcement section. <\/p>\n
In this Feb. 23 judgment, Labor found HKE in violation of Labor laws and required the company to make payments to its employees of $1,321,637.09 in back wages and $416,241.37 in liquidates damages.<\/p>\n
HKE completed its payment of the back wages on March 15, 2016.<\/p>\n
Witry said HKE did not pay the liquidated damages of $416,241.37 by the due date of March 15, 2016, and the amount remains due and owing.<\/p>\n
Witry said the settlement agreement provides that upon the filing of a notice of non-compliance, Labor may exercise its option to treat this order as a final agency action and thereupon, file a direct action in the Superior Court to enforce the judgment.<\/p>\n
Witry said Labor filed its notice of non-compliance with the hearing office on April 21, 2016, and served the notice upon HKE on April 2, 2016.<\/p>\n
Witry said Labor requires the court\u2019s assistance to collect the liquidated damages. <\/p>\n
Tinian Labor employee R. Casandra Cabrera-Viches, in her declaration filed in court last April 25, stated that as of the date of the stipulated settlement and consent judgment, Labor was aware of two HKE officers: Christopher Bishop and Sterling Lundgren.<\/p>\n
Cabrera-Viches said Labor has learned that neither Bishop nor Lundgren work for HKE any more, and has not determined who the current HKE officers are.<\/p>\n
Cabrera-Viches said she served a copy of Labor\u2019s notice of non-compliance upon HKE by affixing it to the front door of Tinian Dynasty on April 22, 2016.<\/p>\n
Last April, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered HKE to pay $1.4 million to two plane crash survivors to satisfy their settlement agreements. <\/p>\n
Manglona said pending further court\u2019s order, HKE shall refrain from the sale or transfer of any of its personal property, except in the normal course of business.<\/p>\n
In February 2015, HKE attempted to sell Tinian Dynasty to Tinian Entertainment Co. Inc., but the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission rejected the sale.<\/p>\n
In June 2015, HKE was found to have violated the Bank Secrecy Act and fined with a $75 million civil penalty.<\/p>\n
HKE closed its casino operation at the Dynasty in August 2015, but then continued to operate its hotel.<\/p>\n
Labor determined that from August 2015 through January 2016 (except for the pay period from Dec. 12-31, 2015), HKE operated the hotel, but stopped paying wages to all of its hourly and salaried workers.<\/p>\n
About 400 workers continued to work at the Dynasty for more than four months without receiving their owed wages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investments…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[1628,88,11074,6992],"class_list":["post-229411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-hke","tag-superior-court","tag-tinian-dynasty-hotel","tag-tinian-entertainment-co"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}