Not that you’d find it the homepage of its website, but OSHA issued a large press release earlier this week announcing $193,750 in proposed penalties against the China-owned Imperial Pacific Resort Casino in Saipan for “inadequate fall protection, unsecured scaffolding, unprotected crane operation areas, unguarded machines, and failure to notify OSHA about a work-related amputation.” Citations were also issued to MCC International Saipan Ltd. Co and MCC’s subcontractor Nanjing BeiLiDa New Materials System Engineering Co. (To find the press release, you have to click on the small “More News” button next to the NEWS item and then “What’s New link.” Nothing is easy at OSHA these days.)
Debbie Berkowitz at the National Employment Law Project pointed out that this is one of OSHA’s largest citations this year:
“Today, three construction contractors building a resort in Saipan where a worker was killed on the job this March, were cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violating basic safety rules and keeping fraudulent injury records. These companies, all contractors building the Imperial Pacific Resort Construction Project, were found to have failed to provide safe work conditions and clearly cut corners when it came to protecting workers.
“No worker should have to sacrifice his health or life to earn a paycheck.”
Imperial Pacific seems to have much bigger problems however, including a Justice Department investigation concerning possible violations of anti-money-laundering rules.
And the plot thickens:
The FBI has said its recent search was prompted by the death of a 43-year-old worker, Chinese citizen Hu Yuanyou, on the casino construction site in late March.
Hu, whom local media said was killed in a fall from scaffolding, arrived in Saipan as a tourist earlier in the month, the FBI said in court documents. Saipan allows Chinese nationals to arrive without applying first for visas, unlike the U.S. mainland. Those short visa-free stays have made the territory a popular destination for tourists from the world’s second-largest economy.
Zhang, the MCC executive, said Hu didn’t work for MCC, but instead for another firm working with Imperial Pacific. He declined to identify that company.
Two MCC International Saipan employees — a project manager named Zhao Yuqing, and Ruan Pei, a government liaison responsible for filing employee documents — were charged with bringing in and harboring unauthorized workers.
The FBI also allegedly found a spreadsheet that indicates that the company may have employed as many as 150 undocumented workers. In addition, “During the search, they found a bag containing about 400 Chinese passports, including the passports of 181 Chinese who entered Saipan under the visa parole program, documents state. Each passport holder had overstayed their parole period, documents state.”
Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, who represents Saipan, was pleased with the OSHA citation: “These are some of the largest penalties OSHA has issued this year across the nation, underscoring the seriousness of the safety and health violations found at the Imperial Pacific Resort construction site last December. It should go without saying that the health of our economy is compromised when the health and lives of our workers are in jeopardy. All workers deserve safe places of employment.”
The whole thing promises to get even more interesting, considering the friend in high places that Imperial Pacific has:
Imperial Pacific, controlled by Chinese entrepreneur Cui Lijie, has assembled a team of high-powered U.S. political figures to assist with its Saipan ambitions. Its chairman is Mark Brown, a former executive with Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos. Former CIA director James Woolsey and Eugene Sullivan, formerly a senior military judge, sit on its board. Former Louisiana Governor Haley Barbour, former FBI director Louis Freeh and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell serve as advisers, the company said in a March 28 presentation.
Stay tuned for more.