The interim CEO of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC, Ray Yumul, has tendered his resignation after a year in the job.
According to the Saipan Tribune, Yumul tendered his resignation last week via a letter to HR informing them of his decision. In the letter he said it had been a “pleasure and honor” to fill the void left by former CEO Donald Browne, who quit in December 2020.
His departure comes just days after he was involved in a heated exchange with members of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) over IPI’s failure to remove a crane from the site of Imperial Palace · Saipan. Yumul also threatened to reveal details of past dealings between the company and some local politicians at an upcoming meeting in March at which the CCC is set to decide on whether to revoke IPI’s casino license.
It is reported that Yumul also told the CCC to “go to hell” during recent discussions before later apologizing.
In yet another twist in the IPI saga, CCC Executive Director Andrew Yeom reportedly told the Saipan Tribune last week that it had never granted IPI’s application for Yumul to be its CEO.
Yeom was the man who originally filed five complaints against IPI in April 2021 for failure to comply with certain requirements under its license agreement.
Those five complaints specifically related to IPI’s failure to pay its annual US$15.5 million license fee in August 2020, failure to pay its annual US$3.1 million regulatory fee in October 2020, failure to contribute US$20 million to the community benefit fund in both 2018 and 2019, failure to comply with its minimum US$2 billion capital requirement and failure to comply with a CCC order to pay all money owing to its vendors.
IPI’s license was suspended in May 2021 and the company given six months to pay both the US$15.5 million casino license fee and US$3.1 million regulatory fee, as well as a US$6.6 million fine, or face license revocation.