Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) and Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Andrew Yeom squabbled Thursday last week during a House Gaming Committee meeting after Babauta accused the CCC of protecting the interest of casino licensee Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC. <\/p>\n
Babauta said she finds it frustrating that CCC has not really laid any serious claims against IPI in terms of financial penalties, other than the $6 million it earlier imposed on the company.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker said it appears\u2014at least from her viewpoint\u2014that, although the CCC works for the CNMI government, it is reluctant to revoke IPI\u2019s casino license. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears that you guys are protecting their interests, not the CNMI government. So that\u2019s why I have a problem and frustration with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Yeom said he strongly disagrees with Babauta. \u201cHow can we be protecting a private company when I work for the Commonwealth,\u201d Yeom asked. <\/p>\n
Babauta said she understands due process but CCC is giving IPI so much leeway.<\/p>\n
Yeom stated he has no intention of giving any personal favors to IPI but before he could even complete his explanation of what is allowed by law, Babauta interrupted that IPI assets are being sold by the U.S. District Court for the NMI, yet CCC is just sitting by the sidelines. \u201cYou\u2019re not claiming a stake in any of their assets and you guys work for the CNMI government,\u201d Babauta said. <\/p>\n
Yeom said it is the Department of Finance that is the one that collects the funds and has the liens on IPI.<\/p>\n
Yeom said they have already suspended IPI\u2019s casino license and that regulatory suspension means almost a death sentence for IPI. He explained that suspending the license means IPI cannot go anywhere in the international community to get help and raise funds to pay off its debts and obligations. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much a death sentence,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
Babauta countered that, by stating that the CCC does not know whether IPI\u2019s casino license is going to be revoked or not, that is giving false hope.<\/p>\n
Yeom replied that that\u2019s not what he said. He pointed out that he cannot guarantee that IPI\u2019s license is going to be revoked today or tomorrow, but that they are definitely moving in that direction. He said the casino license suspension just happened in the last few months and that he\u2019s been advised by their legal counsel, assistant attorney general Michael Ernest, \u201cto do it every step of the way correctly and legally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yeom said they are giving IPI due process and making sure that the CCC follows the law.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not here to argue with you,\u201d Yeom told Babauta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) and Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Andrew Yeom squabbled Thursday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":348832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[12497],"class_list":["post-348831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-ipi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348831","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=348831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}