Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) and its CEO have been found in contempt for wilfully slow-rolling court-ordered payments to former employees. 

On Tuesday, Chief Judge Ramona Manglona of the US District Court for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) found both IPI and its CEO David Browne in contempt of court for failing to comply with previous court orders to pay $93k in attorneys’ fees in a timely manner. 

In August, Manglona ordered IPI to pay the $93k to seven construction workers who sued IPI for unfair labor practices during their work on the company’s Imperial Palace casino. The court deemed the fees warranted because of IPI’s “repeated failures” to produce case-related documents demanded by the court. 

As with its numerous other creditors, IPI pleaded poverty, so Manglona gave the company a month’s respite but ordered the company to make interim payments as money became available. To virtually no one’s surprise, IPI paid absolutely nothing toward these legal fees.