‘IPI has not remitted SS deductions in ’20-’21’

Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC has not remitted Social Security deductions involving more than a thousand of its employees in 2020 and 2021, according to Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Andrew Yeom yesterday.

Yeom told the CCC commissioners during the board’s monthly meeting yesterday in Gualo Rai, that he will disclose the unremitted amount in the complaint that he will be filing soon. He said they will be filing possibly two more enforcement actions against IPI relating to such tax violations, which, according to him, translate to major violations in the CNMI’s casino regulations.

Yeom said that, at the end of their investigation last March 14, they have formally forwarded this case to the CNMI Division of Revenue and Taxation for official actions since the matter is a violation of tax law, whether it be local or federal.

He said their investigation started when the CCC received last Jan. 28 an anonymous email from the public that IPI has not remitted the employees and employers Social Security withholding for more than a year.

“We found this to be a very concerning matter if, in fact, this was true, which warranted our investigation,” Yeom said.

Shortly thereafter, he said, they contacted IPI to ask about the validity of this claim. He said that IPI’s Human Resource director, Redie Dela Cruz, informed them that the claim is true and mostly correct and that they have referred the matter to their legal team for their due diligence. He said they were asked to give IPI some time for their due diligence as well as to seek remedial solution.

Yeom said a little more than a month later, or last March 3, after discussions with IPI, they finally gathered information from IPI’s finance director Frances Mafnas, showing the total aggregate amount owed Social Security, the number of affected employees, and the years affected.

Saipan Tribune learned that a former employee inquired from then-IPI chief executive officer Ray N. Yumul last January about his W2 showing SS taxes being deducted but not being credited to him as shown in the SS website.

Early this month, Yumul told Saipan Tribune that a response from the U.S. Social Security office about the matter was that any current or former employee who may have concerns about their wage withholdings not being remitted may simply need to provide a photocopy of their W2 for the affected period and a copy of their driver’s license.

He said the employee must place the documents in a sealed envelope and drop it at the local SS Office at the Marina Heights 2 Building in Puerto Rico and the person will be credited their withholdings.