“THERE is now overwhelming evidence that former Imperial Pacific International LLC chair Lijie Cui persisted in a pattern of obstruction, obfuscation, and lies even after the court found her in contempt back on Feb. 23, 2021,” said attorney Aaron Halegua who represents seven construction workers in a lawsuit filed against the casino developer over forced labor and human trafficking allegations.
In a recent motion filed in federal court, Halegua reiterated his previous request to find Cui in contempt for failing to comply with a preservation order.
Cui is a third-party witness in the lawsuit of the seven workers against IPI and its former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration, both of which have settled with the plaintiffs.
On Feb. 23, 2021, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI found Cui in contempt for disobeying the court’s discovery orders.
The plaintiffs had made an oral request that Cui preserve the data on her mobile phone. 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 ordered Cui to explain to the court why she should not be held in contempt.
At the time, Halegua told the court, “it was already evident that Ms. Cui failed to comply with the preservation order.”
He said since then, the plaintiffs “conducted a deposition of Ms. Cui (who provided numerous evasive and demonstrably false answers), obtained and filed the report by TransPerfect’s forensic expert, submitted a declaration from an IT&E employee accused by Ms. Cui of losing her SIM card, and reviewed emails exchanged between (Cui’s former attorney) attorney Juan Lizama and Ms. Cui (via her translator Howyo Chi).”
Halegua said not “only did Ms. Cui fail to comply with the preservation order, but she intentionally sought to deceive plaintiffs and the court by, inter alia, ‘accidentally’ deleting her WeChat data immediately after a court hearing; creating a false story about how she ‘lost’ her Hong Kong SIM card; and wiping all data from the cell phone and never disclosing this fact.”
Halegua said attorney Lizama “affirmed that Ms. Cui had been using a rose-gold cell phone while in Saipan, not the silver one that she tendered to TransPerfect. Accordingly, any claim that Ms. Cui has been acting in good faith to comply with the court’s orders is simply absurd.”
Halegua said the court should, once again, hold Cui in civil contempt and impose the sanctions set forth in the Order to Show Cause, including: ordering Ms. Cui to provide an updated sworn statement; commanding her to turn over all Electronically Stored Information or ESI devices to her attorney (including her computer, the Samsung phone, and the rose-gold iPhone); imposing a $10,000 daily fine or more severe sanction (such as incarceration) until Ms. Cui complies with all orders; and paying the attorneys’ fees and costs accrued to date.
According to Halegua, “In light of Ms. Cui’s blatant efforts to defraud Plaintiffs and the Court, the Court should also consider a finding of criminal contempt and the imposition of punitive sanctions.”
The court has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
Following IPI’s announcement that Cui has resigned as board chair and executive director of the company, the law firm of Guam attorney David Lujan, Lujan & Wolff, made an appearance on behalf of Cui in the proceedings.
In a previous order, Judge Manglona entered a $5.4 million default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against IPI.
IPI requested the court to reconsider its decision, but the court denied the motion.
To satisfy the $5.4 million default judgment, the plaintiffs have applied for a writ of execution against IPI’s personal properties.
The seven plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
Their original complaint was filed against Gold Mantis Construction Decoration (CNMI) in December 2018. An amended complaint was filed in March 2019 to include MCC International Saipan Ltd. Co. and IPI as defendants. The plaintiffs also added an allegation of forced labor under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
Aaron Halegua
