Gambling regulators on the island of Saipan are the latest to be questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a probe related to local casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI).
Last week, FBI agents raided multiple locations across Saipan, including offices belonging to IPI and one of its registered lobbyists. The agents also visited the offices of Ralph Torres, governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), as well as a law firm run by Torres’ brothers and a local realtor. The FBI has yet to cite the reason for the raids.
On Wednesday, the Saipan Tribune reported that the FBI had paid a visit on Tuesday to the offices of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), which oversees all gaming operations in the CNMI. The FBI was reportedly accompanied by agents of the Office of the Public Auditor (OPA), which keeps tabs on the use of public funds by government agencies.
CCC exec director Edward Deleon Guerrero told the Tribune that the CCC board had “a little meeting” with the FBI and OPA agents on Tuesday. Deleon Guerrero declined to offer specifics as to the “wide area of discussions” in this meeting, saying only that, in his opinion, it had “nothing to do with CCC.”
Deleon Guerrero also stressed that, unlike last Thursday’s raids, no search warrants were issued by the FBI for the CCC offices. Deleon Guerrero noted that the CCC was “the policemen of the [casino] industry, so it is appropriate for one policeman of one industry to consult with another policeman in another industry.”
Last week’s raids were the third time the FBI has paid a visit to IPI facilities, with the most recent visit coming in March 2018, not long after Bloomberg reported that IPI had made “millions of dollars in payments to family members” of Gov. Torres.
Torres said last week that he and his staff were cooperating fully with the FBI, but the Marianas Variety quoted Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, who represents Saipan’s interests in Washington, saying it was “sad and embarrassing for the people of the Northern Marianas to know that our governor is under investigation by the FBI.”
Similarly, local legislative Rep. Tina Sablan called Torres’ involvement in Thursday’s raids “shameful” but “not entirely surprising.” Sablan claimed that “an unhealthy relationship has developed between IPI and our government, one that has undermined public trust and subverted the rule of law and our democracy.”
Meanwhile, IPI’s labor practices are once again coming under public criticism. On Tuesday, local media reported that over 150 laborers from Taiwan and 12 more from Thailand who had been working on completing IPI’s long-delayed Imperial Palace Resort on Saipan were being shipped home ahead of the January 2020 expiration of their H-2B temporary work visas.
Some of the exiting laborers told the Guam Post that they were being asked to leave ahead of schedule because IPI wanted to bring in laborers from Mongolia, who will reportedly do the same work for half the hourly wage. IPI, which reported a net loss of $240m in the first half of 2019, has previously found itself in trouble with US authorities over its willingness to circumvent US labor laws.
