IN an attempt to comply with a federal court order regarding the electronically stored information or ESI that she has used or created, former Imperial Pacific International chairwoman Lijie Cui has subpoenaed the makers of iPhone, Apple Inc. in California.
Through attorney Joey San Nicolas, Cui wants Apple to produce documents, information, ESI or objects, and to permit the inspection and copying of these materials by Nov. 30 at 3:10 p.m.
In a separate declaration submitted to the court on Monday, San Nicolas stated that on Nov. 5, his client issued a subpoena to Apple Inc., commanding the preservation and/or delivery of Cui’s data located in her iCloud account, pursuant to the court’s preservation order.
San Nicolas also stated that on the same date, Nov. 5, he called one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Bruce Berline, to advise him that Cui had issued the subpoena to Apple Inc. and that Cui would “seek our expert, Mr. Somchay Teddy Estrellido (Docomo Guam chief IT architect), to guide her on how to reset her iCloud password.”
San Nicolas said through IPI’s attorneys in Los Angeles, California, Hughes & Hubbard, he has commissioned a California process server, Ace Legal, to personally serve Apple Inc.’s subpoena to its California registered agent, CT Corporation.
On Nov. 7, 2021, San Nicolas said he, Cui and How Yo Chi (an interpreter), met via videoconference with Somcham Teddy Estrellido to discuss the resetting of Cui’s iCloud password.
“In the meeting Mr. Estrellido explained the process of resetting the account and how iCloud uses the original email of the account for reset purposes. Through our discussion, we found that the email account for Cui…and [her] password were correct; however the email account itself had a multi-factor authentication tied to her previous phone number from Hong Kong. Therefore, according to Mr. Estrellido, Ms. Cui was unable to access the emails from Gmail’s website or her current mobile phone unless she had access to her old number,” San Nicolas said.
He said through Estrellido and Chi’s efforts, Cui was able to successfully reset her iCloud password.
On the morning of Nov. 8, 2021, San Nicolas said, “I emailed plaintiffs’ attorneys a letter informing the attorneys of the new iCloud password.”
Recently, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for NMI found Cui Lijie in contempt of court, again, this time for failing to provide backups of her ESI and the correct login information for her iCloud account.
Judge Manglona ordered Cui to explain by Monday, Nov. 8, her failure to comply, which would result in a $500 a day fine.
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.
On Aug. 26, 2021, Judge Manglona found Cui in contempt of court for failing to comply with a previous preservation order regarding the ESI that she created or used, including emails, and ESI data sent or received by others on her behalf.
The $5.4 million default judgment against IPI and in favor of the plaintiffs remained unsatisfied, and this is the reason why all ESI data held by the former IPI chair remain relevant to the proceedings, Judge Manglona said.
