It looks like the end of a long, rocky road for failed Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI). In late October, a U.S. District Court judge cleared the way for all gaming equipment owned by the company to be sold off, and granted a motion to appoint a limited receiver.
According to the Guam Post, the move came after USA Fanter Corp. Ltd. filed a second breach of contract lawsuit against IPI, which has not paid more than $2 million it is owed from a previous suit, for fees owed the firm for construction work at Imperial Palace Saipan. Fanter is asking for additional damages of about $226,000 for space it leased to IPI.
Clear Management Ltd., a company headed by Silver Heritage Group co-founder Tim Shepherd, has been appointed as receiver “to administer, collect, or sell any casino gaming property in which IPI has an interest and to do any other acts to satisfy the judgment.”
Danny Ewing, director of operations for Clear Management, told Inside Asian Gaming that selloff had already begun by the end of last month.
“It’s well known IPI invested heavily in top of the range gaming equipment across slot machines and electronic table games as well as gaming utilities, gaming chairs and tables which we expect to be of interest to buyers worldwide,” Ewing said.
“The process is commencing with an inventory check and to assess the condition of the equipment before the auction of the equipment commences, the first of which will be at the end of November.”
Imperial Palace Saipan closed in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and has since had its casino license suspended by the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) for failure to pay license fees.
IPI missed a number of scheduled payments, including an annual US$15.5 million license fee in August 2020; an annual US$3.1 million regulatory fee in October 2020; and US$20 million payments to the community benefit fund in both 2018 and 2019. It also failed to comply with its minimum US$2 billion capital requirement and did not comply with a CCC order to pay all money owing to its vendors.
Saipan, in the Western Pacific, is the largest island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory since the end of World War II.
