CHIEF Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI has ordered former Imperial Pacific International LLC Chairwoman Lijie Cui to pay $182,637.53 in attorneys’ fees and costs by June 21, 2022.
Judge Manglona granted the plaintiffs’ “second, third, fourth, and fifth petition for attorneys’ fees and costs against third-party witness Cui” arising from her violation of the court’s orders regarding her preservation of Electronically Stored Information or ESI data.
The judge said the violations spanned for nearly a year — from the court’s initial preservation order issued on March 26, 2021 that was later amended, until “Cui’s purging of her contempt on March 10,” 2022.
“As a result of Ms. Cui’s consistent noncompliance with the court’s numerous orders, the court awarded plaintiffs attorneys’ fees and costs as part of civil contempt sanctions and permitted plaintiffs to submit fee petitions establishing their entitlement to the amount,” Judge Manglona said in her 26-page order.
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 already settled with the plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleged labor violations and human trafficking.
Attorneys Aaron Halegua and Bruce Berline represented the plaintiffs: Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
Previously, Judge Manglona also ordered Cui to pay a total of $42,200 for court-imposed sanctions for her noncompliance with a previous preservation order and contempt order regarding the ESI that she created or used, including emails, and ESI data sent or received by others on her behalf.
Cui was represented by attorney Joey San Nicolas. At the hearing on May 20, San Nicolas informed the court that he would withdraw as counsel of Cui.
According to the court, as the $5.4 million default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against IPI remained unsatisfied, all ESI data held by the former IPI chair remain relevant to the proceedings.
Judge Manglona added, “It is unfortunate that the process to obtain a clear explanation from Cui about her ESI data from her various devices and accounts spanned nearly a year and exhausted countless resources from plaintiffs, Cui, and the court.”
Lijie Cui
