Cui resigns as executive director, chair of IPI’s mother company

Cui Li Jie

Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC chief executive officer Ray N. Yumul confirmed yesterday that Cui Li Jie has resigned as executive director of IPI’s Hong-Kong based mother company, Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited.

Cui also ceased to be both chairperson of the board of directors, and executive committee of the board, of Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited.

In response to Saipan Tribune’s inquiry, Yumul said he was informed about Cui’s decision to resign last Friday. “I’d like to wish her all the best,” he said.

Yumul said Cui’s reason to step down is stated in Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited’s announcement dated June 4, 2021, and filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The CEO said he has been notified that Xu Zhongxiang has been appointed as authorized representative.

“At this time, nothing has changed at the IPI CNMI LLC level,” Yumul said.

It was Xu who filed the June 4, 2021 announcement before the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as executive director of Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited (Company).

Xu stated in the announcement that the board of directors of the company, together with its subsidiaries, announces that effective that day, June 4, Cui has resigned as executive director due to “personal time constraint.”

Xu said Cui also ceased to be the chairperson of the company’s board, and the company’s executive committee of the board, as well as the authorized representative of the company for the purpose of Rule 3.05 of the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

Xu said Cui has confirmed that she had no disagreement with the company’s board and there was nothing in her resignation that needs to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the company or the stock exchange.

Xu said the board expressed its sincere gratitude to Cui “for her valuable contributions” to the subsidiaries during her tenure of office.

Xu said the company’s board also announced that with Cui’s resignation, he, an executive director of the company, has been appointed as the company’s authorized representative.

This means that, as of the June 4, 2021 announcement, the company’s board is composed of Xu as executive director, and Robert James Woolsey, Ng Hoi Yue, Lee Kwok Leung, and Ip Mei Shun as independent non-executive directors.

Last January, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona found Cui, IPI, and Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. in contempt of court for violating a consent judgment, and not paying current IPI employees for over two months.

Last February, Manglona again found Cui in contempt of court for failing to comply with the subpoena served by Bruce Berline, one of the lawyers for seven former construction workers of IPI that was suing the company for allegedly subjecting them to forced labor while working on IPI’s casino/resort project in Garapan.

Recently, Cui informed the federal court that many of her alleged failures to cooperate with legal proceedings in the past were “caused largely, if not all of them, by her [then]-counsel Juan T. Lizama, who for some reason beyond her comprehension has failed to inform her of everything communicated to him by the opposite lawyers.”

Last April 22, the Commonwealth Casino Commission board ordered the indefinite suspension of IPI’s gaming license and directed IPI to pay $6.6 million in total penalty within six months and pay immediately $15.5 million and $3.1 million in annual exclusive license fee and annual casino regulatory fee, respectively, for violating several CCC enforcement orders.

Manglona recently issued a default judgment in favor of the seven Chinese construction workers suing IPI.