{"id":30157,"date":"2022-05-26T03:03:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T06:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30157"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:24:12","slug":"former-ipi-chairwoman-ordered-to-pay-plaintiffs-legal-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-ipi-chairwoman-ordered-to-pay-plaintiffs-legal-fees","title":{"rendered":"Former IPI chairwoman ordered to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cui Lijie has been ordered to pay plaintiffs’ attorneys\u2019 fees in civil contempt sanctions as a result of noncompliance with court orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.-\u00a0Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona\u00a0<\/strong>has ordered former\u00a0IPI chairwoman<\/a>\u00a0Cui Lijie to pay $182,637.53 in attorneys\u2019 fees and costs by June 21. Cui Li Jie has been repeatedly found to have violated\u00a0court orders <\/strong>regarding electronically stored information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cui is a witness in the lawsuit brought against IPI and its former contractors and subcontractors MCC International and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration by seven construction workers. The plaintiffs allege labour rights violations and human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Manglona stated: \u201cAs a result of Ms Cui\u2019s consistent noncompliance with the court\u2019s numerous orders, the court awarded plaintiffs attorneys\u2019 fees and costs as part of civil contempt sanctions and permitted plaintiffs to submit fee petitions establishing their entitlement to the amount.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge added: \u201cIt is unfortunate that the process to obtain a clear explanation from Cui about her ESI data from her various devices and accounts spanned nearly a year and exhausted countless resources from plaintiffs, Cui, and the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April, Cui Lijie was also ordered to pay court fines totalling $42,200.<\/a> According to Cui, the fees owed total $36,200 but the court\u2019s calculations come out at $42,200<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNMI Court postpones CCC hearing on IPI casino licence for second time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chief Judge Manglona has\u00a0issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) from holding\u00a0a hearing scheduled for May 24<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her report, Manglona explained that the damage IPI could suffer from the cancellation of the licence far outweighs the possible damage to the CCC. In addition, she ordered the regulator to appear at a hearing on June 2<\/strong> to explain why a preliminary injunction should not be issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the judge, any breach of the temporary restraining order by the defendant \u201ccould be considered contempt of court and prosecuted\u201d. The judge also required IPI to submit and post a security deposit in the amount of $100,000 prior to May 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cui Lijie has been ordered to pay plaintiffs’ attorneys\u2019 fees in civil contempt sanctions as a result of noncompliance with court orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":30284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Former IPI chairwoman Cui Lijie has been ordered to pay substantial attorneys' fees as civil contempt sanctions for repeated non-compliance with court orders regarding electronically stored information in a labor rights lawsuit. Concurrently, a court has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Commonwealth Casino Commission from holding a hearing on IPI's casino license, mandating a $100,000 security deposit from IPI, underscoring significant legal and regulatory challenges for the operator.","focusai_entities":"Cui Lijie, IPI, MCC International, Gold Mantis Construction Decoration, Commonwealth Casino Commission, Ramona V. Manglona","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI License Viability?","query":"What is the long-term impact of these civil contempt sanctions and the temporary restraining order on IPI's operational license viability and market presence in the CNMI?"},{"label":"Governance Framework Implications?","query":"How do the repeated ESI non-compliance and contempt findings against former leadership reflect on IPI's current corporate governance frameworks, internal controls, and overall enterprise risk management?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[24134,22674],"class_list":["post-30157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-imperial-pacific-international","tag-ipi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30189,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30157\/revisions\/30189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}