ATTORNEY Aaron Halegua has requested the federal court to issue an order requiring Imperial Pacific International LLC chairwoman Cui Li Jie to make a forensic copy of her cell phone, including all WeChat data, as well as any other email accounts, messaging accounts or other electronically stored information or ESI used by her.
“If an order is not issued, this data will likely be lost forever and result in irreparable harm to plaintiffs, particularly as they seek to enforce the forthcoming default judgment against IPI,” he added.
Halegua and Bruce Berline are the lawyers of seven construction workers who have sued IPI and its former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International and Gold Mantis, over labor and human trafficking allegations.
The plaintiffs are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan. They have asked the federal court to issue an order awarding them $3.86 million in compensatory damages and $7.72 million in punitive damages.
The plaintiffs have already reached a settlement agreement with MCC International and Gold Mantis.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI recently found Cui Li Jie in contempt of court for not complying with a subpoena.
The judge ordered the IPI chairwoman to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees and costs in the amount of $33,890.10 no later than March 5 as part of the sanctions against Cui Li Jie.
The judge likewise granted the plaintiffs’ motion for an entry of default.
In his new motion, Halegua said, “The court has stated that it now intends to issue a default judgment against IPI.”
“It is quite clear that IPI is unlikely to pay that judgment, and plaintiffs will need to aggressively search for assets held by IPI and invoke judicial assistance to execute on them,” Halegua added.
“IPI has repeatedly claimed that it has no revenue and no money available,” he said. “When judgments have been obtained against IPI by other creditors, IPI has not paid but rather sought other ways to stay enforcement.”
For instance, Halegua said Pacific Rim obtained a multi-million-dollar judgment against IPI but had to move the court to issue writs of execution against IPI’s gaming equipment, vehicles and other assets before IPI found the money to post a bond and stay these enforcement actions.
“In the instant case, only when the court threatened to incarcerate IPI’s CEO if a sanctions award was not paid, did a casino ‘player’ suddenly loan the needed money to IPI,” Halegua said.
“It is also apparent that enforcing a judgment against IPI will necessitate understanding its financial relationship to IPI Holdings Ltd. and Ms. Cui. To the extent that IPI has paid its debts or satisfied its creditors in Saipan, the funds have routinely come from IPIH or other entities and/or individuals in Hong Kong. For instance, former IPI CEO Donald Browne noted that he turned to IPIH when the company needed to pay a court sanction in this case, and that IPIH provided the money when funds were needed to pay the electricity bill for employee housing.”
Halegua said the money to cover IPI’s most recent payroll was “sent from Hong Kong.”
At a meeting of the Commonwealth Casino Commission on Feb. 24, 2021, IPI CEO Ray N. Yumul stated that IPI must “rely on our parent company in Hong Kong to provide us with funds,” Halegua said.
He said after a default judgment against IPI is issued, “plaintiffs will certainly need to employ the broad discovery powers granted to parties seeking to enforce judgments.”
As part of this discovery, Halegua said, “plaintiffs will certainly seek information from Ms. Cui and IPIH about their financial relationship with IPI, transfers made to IPI, and their knowledge of assets and other funds available to IPI.”
He said, “iI steps are not taken now to preserve this evidence, then plaintiffs’ right to seek discovery will become hollow. A preservation order is necessary to avoid that injustice.”
Aaron Halegua
