BB reports on raids untrue, says IPI
New York-based news organization Bloomberg L.P. and two of its reporters are being sued in Hong Kong by Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. and its subsidiary Imperial Pacific (CNMI) LLC, which owns and operates the sole casino resort on the island of Saipan.
According to Marianas Variety, the High Court of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Court of First Instance has issued a writ of summons to the business news outlet and two other defendants, reporters Matthew Campbell and K. Oanh Ha.
IPI claims Bloomberg falsely reported that the casino operator was “raided by U.S. agents” in an article titled “A Chinese Casino Has Conquered a Piece of America,” reported Asia Gaming Brief. Saipan is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory.
In related news, reported GGRAsia, Lu Hou Tsai, senior vice president of operations for Imperial Pacific, told GGRAsia that the company continues to seek investors to fund the hotel at the casino complex. Speaking on the sidelines of the Japan Gaming Congress, he said, “This project will go through. We are working diligently to get the hotel up, because once the hotel is up, that will further assist us in increasing our cash flow.
“It’s not conducive to business when you have customers staying at ‘this hotel, that hotel,’” said Tsai. “Right now, we have over 1,000 construction workers on site, and our construction company is a U.S.-based construction company.” The latter comment was an oblique reference to previous troubles at the site caused by illegal imported labor.
Tsai said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has “given us the blessing, so we are 100 percent good to go as far as ramping up our construction efforts are concerned.”
