A brother of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said over the weekend that the governor had no involvement with the land lease agreement with Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC, contrary to what a magazine article suggests.<\/p>\n
In a Bloomberg Businessweek story titled, \u201cA Chinese Casino Has Conquered a Piece of America,\u201d it alleged that Vincent D. Torres, one of the governor\u2019s brothers at the Torres Brothers law firm, allegedly got a highly profitable return in a land lease agreement with IPI.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026One such entity bought a land lease from Torres\u2019 sister-in-law, Rowina, for $667,000. She almost quadrupled her investment, having purchased the land about five months earlier for $180,000. The lease documents bear the signature of her husband, Torres\u2019 eldest brother, Vincent\u2026 and that of Cai Lingli, a member of the [IPI] board,\u201d the story stated, suggesting that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres obtained his \u201cwillingness to accommodate IPI\u201d through transactions between the company and his relatives.<\/p>\n
Vincent Torres told Saipan Tribune over the weekend that the claims in the Bloomberg article were false.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I invested in an 11,201-square-meter oceanview property. IPI wanted to lease our property for 55 years. We negotiated the price in arms-length and agreed to $59.56 per square meters for a total of $667,200, which was lower than the fair market value at the time,\u201d Vincent Torres said.<\/p>\n
Given the location and size of the property, it would easily be worth double or more today, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur transaction was purely business and had nothing to do with any payment for favors for IPI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther, Governor Torres had no involvement whatsoever in the negotiation or transaction of our land lease agreement,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe provided this information to Bloomberg but they intentionally did not include it in their article.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bloomberg piece further alleged that the law firm itself benefited from IPI. The law firm repudiated that claim, adding that the firm represents individuals and private entities, not government agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of respect for our brother and public confidence, we do not represent any government agencies despite [being asked] in the past to represent them in legal matters,\u201d said the law firm in a statement. \u201cWe represent individuals and private entities including IPI, which we charge similar rate[s] as we do others. We work with several other law firms on island that IPI hired as well. The governor does not get involved in any transactions our firm handles,\u201d adding that this information was \u201cexcluded from Bloomberg\u2019s article\u201d even though it was provided.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026Bloomberg singled out the Torres lease despite the fair market value. The implication appears to be an unfair attack on the Torres family,\u201d said Vincent Torres.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg further alleged that Serafin Camacho, the husband of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 first cousin, Lillian Camacho, negotiated a reported $4 million agreement with IPI in land leases. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is also godfather to their adult son, Joel Camacho.<\/p>\n
\u201cSerafin\u2019s sale documents also show Cai\u2019s signature; the deals paid out immediately, even though the lease for one doesn\u2019t begin until 2042,\u201d the Bloomberg piece stated.<\/p>\n
Serafin told Saipan Tribune that contrary to the allegations, he only received $500 for his signature.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I have only received $500 for a transaction and that is to have my name as the \u2026 [fee] simple owner as a Northern Marianas descent,\u201d he said. \u201cThe $4 million was paid out and benefitted other local landowners who are unrelated to me or the governor,\u201d Serafin added, without specifying who the recipients of the $4 million were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A brother of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said over the weekend that the governor had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[20175,12497,38,20176],"class_list":["post-270521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-bloomberg-businessweek","tag-ipi","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-vincent-torres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270521","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}