{"id":30703,"date":"2022-06-13T03:52:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T06:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30703"},"modified":"2026-04-23T07:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:52:06","slug":"former-ipi-chairwoman-must-explain-why-she-cant-pay-legal-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-ipi-chairwoman-must-explain-why-she-cant-pay-legal-fees","title":{"rendered":"Former IPI chairwoman must explain why she can\u2019t pay legal fees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CNMI Court has called Cui Lijie to appear in court on June 18 to explain why she cannot pay $182,637 in attorney fees and costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- \u00a0Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has ordered IPI chairwoman<\/a>\u00a0Cui Lijie to appear in court to provide a financial report explaining why she cannot pay attorney’s fees in a timely manner. She’s been called to appear at 9am on June 18 accompanied by a competent Mandarin interpreter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of May,\u00a0Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona\u00a0<\/strong>ordered former\u00a0IPI chairwoman<\/a>\u00a0Cui Lijie to pay $182,637.53 in attorneys\u2019 fees and costs by June 21.\u00a0However, on June 6, 2022, Cui Lijie , through attorney Joey San Nicolas, filed a motion asking the court to allow her to pay $5,000 in monthly instalments and the full amount by June 2025, rather than a lumpsum amount by June 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Mariana’s Variety, Cui said: “I presently do not have funds to pay the said attorneys\u2019 fees and costs to plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: \u201cI will receive funds from business associates and family members to help pay for the said attorneys\u2019 fees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cui is a witness in a 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

In April, Cui Lijie was also ordered to\u00a0pay court fines totalling $42,200.<\/a>\u00a0According to Cui’s calculations, the fines should total $36,200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NMI senator pushes to open up casino licences on the islands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As previously reported by Focus Gaming News, Paul A. Manglona, a member of the Senate\u2019s minority bloc, has again called for progress on Senate Bill 22-23<\/strong>. The bill would end Imperial Pacific International\u2019s exclusivity as the only casino licensee on the islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manglona sent a letter to senate floor leader Vinnie Sablan also requesting urgent attention be given to Senate Joint Resolution 22-01, which would request governor Ralph DLG Torres instruct the representative of the Planning and Development Advisory Council to \u201cimmediately deliver a report\u201d on casino projects to the legislature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNMI Court has called Cui Lijie to appear in court on June 18 to explain why she cannot pay $182,637 in attorney fees and costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":11654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Cui Lijie, Chairwoman of Imperial Pacific International (IPI), has been ordered to appear in court to explain her inability to pay substantial attorney fees and fines, stemming from a lawsuit alleging labor rights violations against IPI. Concurrently, a Northern Mariana Islands senator is advocating for legislation to revoke IPI's exclusive casino license, aiming to introduce competition and new market entrants.","focusai_entities":"Cui Lijie, Imperial Pacific International (IPI), Ramona V. Manglona, Joey San Nicolas, MCC International, Gold Mantis Construction Decoration, Paul A. Manglona, Vinnie Sablan, Ralph DLG Torres, Planning and Development Advisory Council","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI License Future?","query":"What is the projected timeline and legislative pathway for Senate Bill 22-23, and what specific criteria would new casino license applicants in the CNMI need to satisfy under the proposed framework?"},{"label":"IPI Financial Viability?","query":"How do the ongoing financial liabilities and legal challenges facing IPI's leadership impact the company's operational continuity and its ability to meet existing regulatory obligations and capital expenditure commitments?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439,158],"tags":[24134,22674],"class_list":["post-30703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","tag-imperial-pacific-international","tag-ipi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30703","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=30703"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30731,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30703\/revisions\/30731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}