IPI’s former chairwoman faces penalty of US$200 a day

Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has ruled that Cui Li Jie has failed to provide backups of her electronically stored information.

Northern Mariana Islands.- Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has ordered Imperial Pacific International’s former chairwoman Cui Li Jie to pay a daily sanction of US$200 per day for failing to comply with a court order to hand over electronic data. The fine for contempt of court will apply from today (December 23) until Cui complies.

The order relates to a case in which seven construction workers accused IPI of labour abuse and human trafficking. Cui Li Jie was named third-party witness in the case. On March 31, 2021, the court approved a motion from the plaintiff and issued an order instructing Cui to identify and save all telephone data she used or created after March 26, 2020. 

Judge Manglona has also approved the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees and the fees and instructed Cui to submit a sworn statement regarding her iTunes account no later than tomorrow (December 24). A hearing has been arranged for 8.30am on December 29, 2021.

In June, Cui Li Jie said she was poorly represented in court by her lawyer, Juan T. Lizama. However, in an email disclosed in federal court, Lizama says that John Mo Shi Jian, a former University of Macau law professor, was giving Cui Li Jie bad advice.

In August, Cui Li Jie was also found to have breached a court preservation order that obliged her to keep data from her mobile phone.