FOLLOWING a show cause hearing on Wednesday, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI increased the per diem sanction against former Imperial Pacific International, LLC chair Lijie Cui to $1,000 from $200 a day for her failure to comply with a previous order regarding electronically stored information or ESI.
The increase in the per diem sanction to $1,000 a day will begin today, Dec. 30, Judge Manglona said, adding Cui was not in compliance as to her QQ.com account.
Judge Manglona then scheduled a final evidentiary hearing for Jan. 27, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. and set the deadline for Jan. 13, 2022 for Cui to submit her filings for the evidentiary hearing.
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 Bruce Berline and Aaron Halegua.
Halegua, on Nov. 26, 2021, filed a motion requesting an order to show cause as to why Cui should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with a court order and to pay certain fees of TransPerfect, a vendor that made a forensic copy of Cui’s cellphone.
On Dec. 22, 2021, Judge Manglona entered a finding of contempt against Cui and imposed a per diem sanction of $200 until she complied.
At the show cause hearing on Dec. 29, Cui, represented by attorney Joey San Nicolas, told the court that his client’s position is to concede, adding that she intends to pay the amounts due for the outstanding TransPerfect invoice and attorney’s fees.
San Nicolas said that his client will pay $6,000 and the remaining balance in installments.
Judge Manglona accepted Cui’s admission and found her in civil contempt for failure to pay the TransPerfect fees timely.
The judge also found Cui’s contempt is purged but determined that damages were available for the plaintiffs. She ordered Cui to pay them $6,000 by Dec. 29.
The federal court has repeatedly found Cui noncompliant with a previous preservation order and contempt order regarding ESI that she created or used, including emails, and ESI data sent or received by others on her behalf.
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.
