Saipan Casino Chairwoman Faces Courtroom Lies Claims in Human Trafficking Case

The chairwoman of the Imperial Pacific Casino in Saipan, mired in a human trafficking lawsuit and multiple other labour law charges and claims, has been lambasted this week for obstruction and disobedience of court orders...

Cui Li Jie is at the centre of allegations that she has “obstructed plaintiffs from obtaining discovery at every turn,” in a case brought on behalf of seven workers at the casino.

What appears on the face of it to be typical courtroom bluff and bluster hides a deadly tale of money-laundering, bribery and corruption that has cost several lives along the way.

A Bloomberg article in 2018 had detailed how the I.P.I. Holdings Ltd company saw so many laborers at their casino construction site being injured that a local hospital kept separate records.

Matthew Campbell described “a grim catalog of broken bones, lacerations, puncture wounds, dislocated limbs, and eyes penetrated by flying metal.”

Three years on and the legal process has seen Ms Cui recently try to blame her lawyer for delays, but the attorney for the plaintiffs has listed several instances of Ms Cui’s “non-compliance.”

New York-based lawyer, Aaron Halegua, reminded the court this week that Ms Cui had “evaded service of and failed to respond to a subpoena”, and “when she did appear provided evasive and untruthful testimony.”

Added to this are claims that the casino’s chairwoman had deleted WeChat data from her phone, lied about having preserved the data, and then stated she had lost the SIM card.

“This pattern of noncompliance cannot all fall solely on the shoulders of Mr. Lizama [Ms Cui’s former lawyer),” said Halegua.

Saipan is the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific, with a population of 48,000 and which uses U.S. dollars, U.S. mail, and follows U.S. laws.

The court case continues.