THE former chair of Imperial Pacific International LLC, Lijie Cui, has filed an amended sworn statement regarding the Electronically Stored Information or ESI she created or used in compliance with the federal court’s instruction after it found her in contempt for failing to comply with a previous preservation order.
She said she neither deleted any data from her cell phones, SIM cards, or computer, nor instructed anyone to do so.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI ordered Cui to tender the desktop computer she uses and identified in a recent deposition, and provide a forensic copy to the plaintiffs’ attorney.
Judge Manglona also gave Cui five days from Aug. 25 to file an amended sworn statement regarding all ESI that she created or used, including emails, and ESI data sent or received by others on her behalf.
The judge instructed Cui to have the statement include the identification of people who acted on her behalf as IPI chair regarding conveying communication.
Cui was likewise ordered to provide proof of purchase of the rose gold iPhone she currently uses.
Judge Manglona said Cui must immediately tender all remaining SIM cards and file with the court within two weeks a sworn statement from the vendor affirming that the imaging of all devices was completed and preserved, and affirming that the WeChat account data was also preserved.
Failure to comply will result in daily sanctions amounting to $1,000 per day to be paid to the court, the judge said.
Cui, through attorney David Lujan, filed an amended statement regarding the ESI data she used or created since March 26, 2020 through March 31, 2021.
“I use WeChat to call people,” she said in her amended statement. “I rarely make as many as five calls per month by dialing a telephone phone number on my cell phone. I only have the following social media applications on my current cellphone and the cell phone that I gave to Mr. [Juan] Lizama (her former attorney), namely WeChat, FaceTime, IMessage, a text message app and QQ. I have not used the QQ app in at least two years. Further, I have not used the QQ app since my arrival in Saipan. I have not used iMessage, FaceTime or (the) text message (app) during the relevant time frame.”
Cui added, “I also owned a Samsung cellphone when I came to Saipan. The Samsung cellphone was used for taking photos only. I did not use it for communications purposes. Moreover, there was no SIM card contained in the Samsung cellphone when I possessed the cellphone. I lent the Samsung cellphone to Su Hong Tao for his use because I don’t need two cellphones. Mr. Su returned my cellphone in August 2020. In November 2020, I gave the cellphone to Ma Henan. I have been informed that Ma Henan is presently somewhere in the USA mainland.”
Cui said she also has a Hewlett-Packard desktop computer.
“Attorney Joey San Nicolas’s investigator removed the computer from my office on Aug. 25. I only used the computer to save pictures on. Mr. How Yi Chi and Guan Manni had access to my computer. I have been informed that my computer is not password protected,” Cui said.
“I have a Gmail account,” she added, so she can have an iCloud account.
“The purpose of opening an iCloud account was to back up the data on my Hong Kong cellphone then have that data transferred to my Saipan cellphone. The person who backed up the data from my Hong Kong cellphone to iCloud and back into my Saipan cellphone was Fely Forbes of IT&E. I have not used my Gmail account for any other purpose, including sending emails.
“I have three SIM cards during the relevant timeframe: my Hong Kong SIM card and two Saipan SIM cards.
“I do not recall how many WeChat calls I made, I primarily used WeChat voice messages. I have deleted WeChat messages during the relevant time frame out of habit rather than in defiance of this court’s order. The only messages I deleted during the relevant time frame were messages that people sent to me that only said words to the effect of ‘Hi,’ ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Have a nice day.’ I have not asked anybody to delete any messages on my behalf.”
Cui said she has not deleted any data from her cell phones, SIM cards, or computer, except as described in the preceding paragraph.
“Nor did I instruct anybody to delete messages or data from my cellphones, SIM cards or computer during the relevant time frame,” Cui added.
“The only messages I received on my cellphone during the relevant time frame were through WeChat.
“I have instructed and requested the people that are assisting me such as Ms. Zhu to contact people or obtain information from others for me; however, my only concern is they accomplish the task. I did not concern myself with how they did it.”
Cui stated that on March 18, 2021, Mr. Hanqin Liu, who works for IPI-Saipan as a driver, took her cellphone to IT&E to replace her Hong Kong SIM card.
“IT&E did not return my Hong Kong SIM card to Mr. Hangin. According to Janice Tenorio, IT&E’s customer service manager, IT&E disposed of my SIM card. The reason [Mr. Hangin] changed…my Hong Kong SIM card for a Saipan SIM card was to significantly reduce the cost for me to use data,” she stated.
Cui also stated that her current cellphone is an iPhone 12 Pro Max 126GB.
“The cellphone I gave to Mr. Lizama is an iPhone X which is silver/gray. My current cellphone was purchased on May 10, 2021. On that date, I gave my iPhone X to Mr. How Yo Chi (interpreter) to give it to Mr. Lizama,” she stated in her declaration.
Cui is a third-party witness in the lawsuit of seven construction workers against IPI and its former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration, both of which have settled with the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs had alleged labor and other violations, including human trafficking.
Represented by attorneys Aaron Halegua and Bruce Berline, the plaintiffs are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
Judge Manglona has entered a $5.4 million default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against IPI.
On Feb. 23, 2021, the judge found Cui in contempt for disobeying the court’s discovery orders.
On March 31, 2021, the court granted the plaintiffs’ motion and issued an amended order directing Cui to identify and preserve all ESI data that she used or created since March 26, 2020.
On June 30, 2021, the court issued an order to show cause why Cui should not be held in contempt.
On Aug. 25, 2021, the court issued an order finding Cui in contempt.
