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New information unfolds in IPI lawsuit
CCC could’ve leaked financial statement to Legislature
No resolution was reached between the Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC and the Commonwealth Casino Commission during the preliminary injunction hearing yesterday because new information about the Ernst & Young audited financial statement for 2018 came to light.
The Superior Court had to go into recess after hours of heated litigation yesterday and ordered a continuance today because new information regarding who released the Ernst & Young audited financial statements for IPI came up.
During the hearing, it was brought to IPI’s attention that the report could have been leaked to the Legislature, who has made the document public, by the Commonwealth Casino Commission. However, there is no confirmation yet.
CCC’s lawyer, assistant attorney general Michael Ernest, said that the Ernst & Young audited financial statement for IPI could have been disclosed to the Legislature by the casino commission but he was not sure.
Ernest also said that it could have gotten to the Legislature through the House Gaming Committee.
Ernest withdrew from entering the financial statement as an exhibit during the litigation yesterday.
According to IPI lawyer Viola Alepuyo, she and co-counsel Phillip Tydingco were shocked to learn that CCC could have been the source for the leaked audited financial statements.
“We really don’t have any confirmation but we were kind of surprised by who gave out the financial statements, that’s all. We just didn’t know. I’m not going to assume but the [counsel for CCC] said what they said and now we just have to wait and see,” she said.
Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo ordered for IPI and CCC to return today at 1:30pm to continue litigation.
Govendo also ordered for the extension of the modified temporary restraining order as it expires today.
In a previous article on the Saipan Tribune, Rep. Edwin Propst (Ind-Saipan), who also made information from the documents public during a session, said that he received the Ernst & Young report from House Gaming Committee chair Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan).
“I would be happy to disclose the information because I don’t believe that it should be a secret. I am a Gaming Committee member. I sent in an OGA request that I showed to Gaming Committee chair [Rep.] Ralph Yumul and I said ‘Do you have any of this information?’ and…he looked at this information and he handed me what I was looking for—that particular document. So, I got that information from the Gaming Committee chairman. As to where he got it, I don’t know where he got it,” he said.
