"Hong Kong Company Ordered to Pay Chinese Workers $5.4M for Saipan Labor Abuses", 30 May 2021

[...] On Monday, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands ordered a Hong Kong company to pay seven Chinese construction workers $5.4 million in compensation for forced labor, human trafficking and workplace injuries during their employment on the Imperial Pacific casino construction site in Garapan, Saipan.

Chief Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona issued a default judgment on May 24 against Imperial Pacific International (IPI) for forcing the Chinese workers to toil in “extreme, dangerous and inhumane work conditions” on the casino construction site. The workers had been “recruited in China … under false promises,” entered Saipan on tourist visas arranged by the defendants and were housed in “repugnant” dorms, according to the judgment.

The judge ordered IPI, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, to pay the workers $2.9 million in compensatory damages and the same amount in punitive damages, offset by the amount paid to the plaintiffs in settlements with other defendants. [...]

IPI did not answer emails from VOA Mandarin. [...]