Kim’s court battle continues

Businesswoman Jung Ja Kim’s court battles continue, this time in local court against her former husband.
Fresh off a win in her racketeering lawsuit in federal court against her former lawyer, attorney Ramon K. Quichocho, his law firm, and his wife, Kim now turns to the CNMI Superior Court where she and her ex-husband, Byoong Seob Choi, are wrangling over marital properties and debts.

In fact, while jurors were still deliberating in federal court last week in Kim’s racketeering lawsuit, Kim was on the witness stand before Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja. On Monday, it was Kim’s former husband who testified in Superior Court. The hearing continued yesterday afternoon.

While Kim’s lawsuit was complicated in federal court, the lawsuit in Superior Court is simple: Distribution of marital properties and debts.

Attorney Robert T. Torres, counsel for Kim, told Saipan Tribune that the main issue in the Superior Court case is whether So-In Corp. and Pacific Saipan LLC are marital properties.

Torres said they filed a motion in September 2008 to determine that the two companies are not marital properties.

“It took so long…and we’re now here at the point of actual hearing,” Torres said.

Attorney Timothy H. Bellas is counsel for Choi.

Choi filed a petition for dissolution of his marriage with Kim in May 2008. The divorce is over.

The ongoing hearing in Superior Court is a continuation of the divorce proceedings because when Kim and Choi got divorced, they never split their marital properties.

Kim is claiming that the properties are all hers; Choi says it should be a 50-50 split.

Hearings in the case were held for a week in September 2013, but was then reset several times for various reasons, including the trial in federal court of Kim’s lawsuit.

According to Kim’s lawsuit in federal court, on May 14, 2008, upon Quichocho’s misrepresentation, Kim caused eight poker machines to be transferred to Tan Dingo LLC for the below market price of $7,600 from Pacific Saipan LLC, an entity owned by her daughter from Choi.

On July 10, 2008, Kim, as president of So-In Corp., transferred an additional eight poker machines to Tan Dingo.

On Oct. 7, 2008, Kim transferred 10 more poker machines to Tan Dingo. Those machines were located on Rota and previously owned by Pacific Saipan LLC.

On Nov. 10, 2008, Kim caused So-In Corp. to transfer nine more poker machines to Latte Stone LLC.

On Friday, a federal court jury rendered a verdict holding Ramon Quichocho, his wife Frances, his law firm, and their company Karissa LLC liable to pay $2.4 million in damages to Kim, who sued them for racketeering and other claims.