SAIPAN — Washington Post reporter Shibani Mahtani said her reporting on Imperial Pacific International and the stalled Saipan casino project points to a complex, cross-border network involving corporate “smoke and mirrors,” financing ties extending into Japan, and questions about whether the project’s new backers can deliver on promises to restart the casino.
Mahtani, speaking from Singapore during an interview on the NMI News Service morning show Good Morning Marianas, said her interest in the CNMI case grew out of earlier reporting on the casino and her broader work tracking Chinese organized crime across the region. She said her reporting later focused on Ji Xiaobo, the businessman linked to Imperial Pacific, after receiving tips he was in Japan, and as bankruptcy proceedings advanced and the casino assets were poised to be sold to a new buyer. Mahtani said she had also seen local reporting suggesting potential links among Imperial Pacific, “Team King,” Hiroshi Kaneko, and Kyosei Bank in Japan.
Japan financing questions and Kyosei Bank investor lawsuits
Mahtani said one of the most surprising elements of her reporting involved Kyosei Bank in Japan and what she described as financial distress tied to thousands of retail investors, many of them older pensioners who learned about projects through television ads and later sued to recover their money after dividends were not paid for months.
She said sources inside Kyosei Bank described the company as close to collapse, raising doubts about whether the financial backers linked to the Saipan project have the capital required to revive and rebuild a deteriorating casino complex.
“Deliberate effort” to appear Japanese, and the Japan refuge issue
Mahtani said her reporting indicated a “deliberate effort” by the new investor group to present itself as Japanese and distance itself from Imperial Pacific, which she noted had been investigated by multiple agencies.
She also discussed Japan’s role as a place where Chinese fugitives may take refuge, saying law enforcement has observed Chinese criminals moving to Japan in part because there is no extradition of Chinese individuals from Japan back to China.
Complex ties to the Chinese state
Mahtani cautioned against simplistic conclusions about whether such operations act on behalf of the Chinese government, calling it a complex relationship that can involve corrupt individuals, competing agencies, and criminals attempting to leverage connections or intelligence value for leniency.
No charges, and reported frustration inside the investigation
Mahtani said allegations surrounding Imperial Pacific long predated her reporting and had been raised by multiple outlets over several years. She added that people involved in the federal investigation told her it can be difficult to pursue money laundering cases when an operation has effectively shut down, because prosecutors must typically connect laundering activity to other underlying crimes.
She also said investigators described frustration that indictments did not materialize despite what they believed was substantial evidence, while emphasizing that “there were no charges,” requiring careful framing in what the Post ultimately published.
“Big, global, sophisticated” forces targeting a small community
Mahtani said her lasting impression was the scale of the operation relative to the CNMI’s size, describing a “big gulf” between a tight-knit community and what she characterized as a large, transnational enterprise requiring extensive work to untangle layers of corporate structures.
She said she is continuing to track developments in the Pacific region, and that the ongoing question for CNMI is what ultimately happens with the casino restart and any further developments involving Kyosei Bank and Kaneko.
Watch the full interview on the NMI News Service Facebook page or YouTube channel.
