Imperial Pacific International, which runs a casino resort in Saipan has asked U.S. officials to give it more time to make good on its overdue payroll. Saipan is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory in the western Pacific.
IPI’s attorney Michael Dots’ informed the U.S. District Court for the commonwealth that the company “lacks funds to make the deposit that the U.S. Department of Labor has requested.”
According to the Saipan Tribune, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona found IPI, its parent Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., and IPI Chairwoman Cui Li Jie in contempt of court for violating the consent judgment and for failing to pay its current employees for more than 60 days.
AGB Nippon reports that IPI must pay more than $788,000 in wages due to current IPI employees and $1.3 million in wages and overtime for services rendered in 2016 and 2017. It must also “restore employee housing to habitable conditions” and deposit $800,000 into an escrow account for future employees. Dotts reported that power and water have been restored to employee accommodations.
The court originally issued a one-week stop-work order for all IPI employees except for administrative staff, kitchen staff and security. Last month, Manglona revised the order to apply only to construction workers.
Rep. Edwin K. Propst, chairman of the House Committee on Gaming slammed IPI, saying it must fully compensate its workers, past and present. “Pay them what they’re owed. Pay them what they were promised. Nothing less will do with that,” he said.
The casino operation, which originated in a Saipan shopping mall in 2015, originally generated billions in revenues due to robust VIP play. But the casino issued too much credit to its VIPs, many of whom them failed to pay it back. Since then, the operation has hit one speedbump after another, with allegations of money laundering, wire fraud and the use of illegal foreign workers. The permanent resort is still unfinished, the payroll is still unpaid and the company has also been able to meet its financial obligations to the local government.
“We have been played for a long time,” Propst complained to commissioners.
