CHIEF Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI on Wednesday said former Imperial Pacific International LLC chair Lijie Cui has failed to comply with the court’s previous order regarding Electronically Stored Information or ESI.
The judge entered a finding of contempt against Cui and ordered her to pay a per diem sanction of $200 starting Thursday, Dec. 23, to be imposed until Cui complies.
Judge Manglona also granted the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees and cost for having to pursue Cui’s ESI compliance.
Judge Manglona likewise directed Cui to file a sworn declaration regarding her iTunes account no later than Dec. 24, 2021.
In addition, the judge granted the plaintiffs’ motion to show cause and scheduled a hearing for Dec. 29, 2021 at 8:30 a.m.
The federal court has repeatedly found Cui to be not in compliance 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 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: Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Berline and Aaron Halegua.
Judge Manglona previously noted that the $5.4 million default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against IPI remained unsatisfied, and this is the reason why all ESI data held by the former IPI chair remain relevant to the proceedings.
Lijie Cui
