A disgraced Macau law professor sentenced to six years in prison by Macau’s Court of Second Instance earlier this year is said to be in Saipan and offering legal advice to former Imperial Pacific International (IPI) chairman Cui Li Jie.
According to a report by Marianas Variety, John Mo Shi Jian was named by Cui attorney Juan T Lizama in an email to the former IPI figurehead’s assistant and interpreter earlier this month, with Lizama accusing Mo of providing bad advice.
Lizama has since filed a motion to withdraw from representing Cui, who stepped down as IPI chairman on 4 June but continues to serve as a witness in a case brought against the company by seven former construction workers alleging labor law violations and human trafficking related to the construction of Imperial Palace • Saipan.
Cui has asked the court for additional time to find a “competent attorney” before providing further evidence, however Lizana’s email suggests she has been receiving legal advice from Mo in the meantime.
The former head of the University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Law was sentenced in January to six years in prison and fined MOP$100,000 (US$12,500) for sexually assaulting a mainland Chinese university student at a NAPE karaoke bar in 2018.
Marianas Variety said it has been told Mo is currently in Saipan.
The lawyer for the seven construction workers suing IPI said last week that Cui has exhibited a “pattern of obstructionist and disobedient behavior” including allegedly deleting WeChat data from her phone following a 4 March request to preserve her phone data and claiming to have lost the SIM card she had been using since arriving in Saipan.
Cui told the court last week that she didn’t believe her phone data was relevant to the case and accused it of treating her like a defendant rather than a witness.
Cui resigned as an Executive Director of IPI and as Chairperson of the Board of Directors earlier this month citing “personal time constraint”, although she retains her 60.69% interest in the company via her wholly-owned investment vehicle Inventive Star Ltd.