Ahead of Trump-Xi meet, FBI cites illegal Chinese workers at casino site on U.S.-controlled island

Imperial Pacific International Holdings

05/04/2017 09:58

HONG KONG, April 5 (Reuters) - The head of a contractor 
working on a huge casino resort on a U.S.-administered Pacific 
island was charged this week with illegally importing and 
employing Chinese workers, including one who died in March, 
court documents show. 
    The charges came days before U.S. President Donald Trump, 
who put a crackdown on illegal immigration at the forefront of 
his campaign promises, faces his biggest test as a world leader 
when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida. 
    Cash strapped and desperate for revenue, the lush, 
mountainous island of Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana 
Islands and controlled by the United States since the end of 
World War Two, approved a casino in 2014, after which Chinese 
investment has skyrocketed. 
    Imperial Pacific  1076.HK , the owner of the multi-billion 
Saipan gaming project, has wildly outperformed the top casinos 
in the Chinese-run gambling hub of Macau, despite China's 
crackdown on capital flight. Chinese signs and businesses have 
mushroomed across the island. 
    The casino opened on Friday, but the attached resort remains 
unfinished, with construction equipment strewn across the 
workspace, according to photos seen by Reuters. 
    In a complaint made by the FBI to the Northern Mariana 
Islands District Court on Monday, Lu Hui, president of Beilida 
Overseas (CNMI) Ltd, a contractor of Imperial, was charged with 
"unlawful employment of aliens" and "bringing in and harbouring 
certain aliens". 
    During a search of Beilida's office, the FBI said it found a 
list of more than 150 workers called "hei gong", the Chinese 
term for an undocumented worker, as well as a safe containing 
several thousand dollars in U.S. currency, several hundred 
Chinese yuan as well as employee pay stubs.  
    Imperial Pacific said in an email to Reuters that none of 
its employees had been arrested and that it would ensure 
compliance with federal and local laws. 
    "Imperial Pacific has paid construction contractors 
requisite fees for processing needed applications for workers to 
work on the construction problems," it said. 
    Headed by Ji Xiaobo, a one-time middleman whose company 
brought players to Macau, Imperial employs more than 2,000 
construction workers via its contractors and is aiming to open 
the resort in the second half of this year. 
    The workers have been housed in barracks and bused into the 
construction site every day. 
    Hu Yuanyou, 43, the worker who died, had entered the United 
States as a tourist on March 7. His visa expired on March 17 and 
he was not authorised to work in the United States and/or the 
Northern Marianas, according to the FBI filing. It did not give 
details of how he died. 
    But there have been more than 100 work-site injuries in the 
past year such as fractures and crushings, with a surge since 
September, volunteers helping the injured told Reuters. 
    "We have really never seen anything like this. It is kind of 
mind boggling that these injuries are coming from the 
construction site," said one who did not want to give her name 
due to the sensitivity of the issue.  
    Local legislator Ed Propst said there were 1,035 Chinese 
"tourists" on the island who overstayed since the start of this 
year.     
 
 (Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Nick Macfie) 
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 28431631 , +852 9631 
8262; Reuters Messaging: 
farah.master.thomsonreuters@thomsonreuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SAIPAN CASINO/