{"id":368165,"date":"2022-05-11T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=368165"},"modified":"2022-05-11T06:05:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T20:05:00","slug":"ipi-breaking-all-kinds-of-laws-is-intolerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ipi-breaking-all-kinds-of-laws-is-intolerable\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018IPI breaking all kinds of laws is intolerable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission says it has had enough of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC\u2019s continuous failure to comply with CNMI laws. <\/p>\n

According to CCC executive director Andrew Yeom, IPI\u2019s noncompliance has become intolerable and, although the commission wants it to become legally compliant, the casino operator has broken so many laws that the CCC has no choice but to move for revocation. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately [IPI\u2019s] breaking all kinds of laws, whether it be labor laws, immigration laws, even taxes, they\u2019re delinquent. These are very critical issues that they are provoking on our island. It\u2019s intolerable. That why we\u2019ve reached this point,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Yeom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yeom said he understands that IPI has also suffered from the pandemic, but it\u2019s no excuse to break laws. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping for them to come into compliance, even right now. If they could just come into compliance and pay all their vendors, pay their taxes and fees, and just abide by the law\u2014that\u2019s all we\u2019re asking. I guess sometimes it\u2019s difficult to do. I understand, we\u2019re in a pandemic, it has made it very difficult for everyone. But that\u2019s not enough of an excuse to break laws and that\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re doing and we\u2019ve had enough of it already,\u201d Yeom said. <\/p>\n

When asked if CCC would be open to a payment plan on IPI\u2019s part so they could get back into compliance, Yeom could not give a definitive \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d answer. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say yes or no. Aside from [fees], we\u2019re talking about a building that is half-finished. To me, that\u2019s the first and foremost. [IPI] started out a big project promising an over $2-billion investment. We\u2019re halfway there, perhaps. Now, we have this sort of an eyesore that\u2019s sitting in the heart of Garapan. That\u2019s what I\u2019m most interested in finding out, how can we finish that project. Of course, the fees that are due are statutorily required. These are not just in the license agreement, but these are required by law. There\u2019s not much flexibility in terms of me giving any forgiveness or whatnot. To establish a payment plan. I really do not want to go there. The law is clear that you have to pay and, at the end of the day that\u2019s basically what I\u2019m here to regulate and enforce,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Yeom said, however, that CCC might be open to a possible settlement negotiation if IPI can provide tangible proof to warrant one. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can come into compliance, that\u2019s exactly what we want them to do. It\u2019s not like we want to kick them out. We all want [the hotel casino] to be finished. For them to come away with some sort of a settlement negotiation, the hotel casino is going to be a big part of it. IPI can no longer come away with words. They have to show me something in definitive terms that are visible and viable. Something like a completion bond, things of that nature. It has to make sense, it has to be viable. No more words; it\u2019s time for action,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

IPI is set to appear before the CCC board on May 24, to discuss the five enforcement actions that Yeom had filed in support of revoking IPI\u2019s exclusive casino license. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission says it has had enough of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":368183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368165","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}