Allegations include illegal workers, poor conditions
The operator of the only casino resort in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands has rejected claims by Bloomberg News that it has exerts much power over local lawmakers and has paid; has hired illegal workers; allowed them to work under poor conditions.
Imperial Pacific International issued a statement saying it “repudiates all allegations of wrongdoing” in the February 15 news story.
“Imperial Pacific reassures the public that it strives for nothing less than full compliance with all laws and regulations of the CNMI and the United States,” the statement continued. CNMI is a U.S.-controlled territory. “Moreover, Imperial Pacific remains steadfast about meeting its obligations to contribute to the development of the gaming and resort industries in the CNMI.”
Bloomberg alleged that the company makes “millions of dollars in payments to family members of the territory’s governor, Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres.” According to CalvinAyre.com, these payments included $126,000 paid to a law firm run by Torres’ three brothers; a land lease payment of $667,000 to Torres’ sister-in-law for a property she purchased five months earlier for just $180,000; and more than $4 million in land payments to Serafin Camacho, husband of the governor’s cousin.
Torres wrote a response published in the Saipan Tribune saying the Bloomberg piece “lacks an understanding of the size of the CNMI and that many public officials have extended families.”
Torres rejected allegations he is in the operator’s pocket, calling them “blatantly false and apparently perpetuated by individuals who hold a minority opinion, aiming to score cheap political points at the expense of our islands’ image in the world stage.”
But CNMI Rep. Edwin Propst said IPI “runs this government. Any legislation they’ve ever wanted goes their way 100 percent of the time. Not 99 percent of the time. One hundred.”
Edward Deleon Guerrero, the executive director of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), the regulator for the Northern Mariana Islands, said the enormous VIP rolling chip volumes running through the Imperial Palace casino seems outsized because the Macau operators fail to report real VIP numbers.
“The CCC notes that the rolling volume is large,” he said, according to Inside Asian Gaming. “The commonwealth has a low tax structure which the CCC believes dis-incentivizes the tax avoidance schemes believed to be prevalent elsewhere which keep reported volumes lower than actual.
“Other possible contributing factors to Saipan witnessing a very high volume of gambling operations on a per-table basis may be due to combinations of the following factors: IPI’s ownership stems from one of the largest junkets in Macau, it thus has a very strong network in the VIP market; due to strong ties to VIP patrons; China’s anti-corruption campaign has diversified VIP patrons to a new place around the Asia Pacific region such as Saipan and the visa-waiver program available for Chinese players has eased their trips into Saipan.”
As for charges against Torres, the nephew of Deleon Guerrero, he says it only makes sense for the citizens of Saipan.
“It is safe to assume that IPI’s financial success in its business operations is in the best interest of the CNMI and its people,” said Deleon Guerrero. “In this regard, it is reasonable to expect that all CNMI residents have a financial stake in IPI’s success.”
