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Tydingco-Gatewood will preside in trader’s lawsuit
District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood will preside over the racketeering lawsuit filed by a Korean businessman and his former company against a former lawmaker and several others.
Tydingco-Gatewood will handle the lawsuit filed by Il Hwan Kim and KSA Corp. after U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona recused herself from the case.
Manglona disqualified herself from Kim’s lawsuit. She did not elaborate the reason for her recusal.
Section 455(a) of 28 U.S.C. states that “any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
Attorney Pamela Brown-Blackburn is counsel for Kim and KSA Corp. Manglona previously recused herself from presiding over cases handled by Brown-Blackburn.
Brown-Blackburn is counsel for a party that has a pending civil action in the Superior Court. CNMI Supreme Court Associate Justice John A. Manglona, who is Manglona’s husband, is involved in that case.
Kim and KSA alleged in their racketeering lawsuit that defendants conspired to steal millions of dollars from him for his hotel and casino project on Saipan.
Kim and KSA named as defendants in their lawsuit former Public Lands secretary Oscar M. Babauta, former DPL employee Ramon S. Salas, Hun Jin An, Jeong Eun Taek, and Joann P. Hensley.
