Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) has shed another top executive while local politicians continue to seek answers on the company’s phantom social contribution funds.

On Friday, the Marianas Variety reported that IPI had made the “difficult decision” to bid farewell to chief financial officer Ed Chen, based on the company’s view that “a leaner finance department is essential to the success of the company going forward.”

Chen is the second senior figure to leave IPI in less than a week, following the resignation of director Teng Sio I. IPI said the company’s current goal was to have “an efficient and effective organization to endure economic hardship and thrive in the future.”

There’s no question that IPI is enduring hardship, having recently announced that it lost over $508m in 2019 and shut down its Imperial Palace Resort casino, in part to minimize further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus but also because the pandemic has effectively cut the remote casino off from its international customers.