BCB Cheyenne LLC v. MineOne Wyoming Data Center LLC — Entry #384: OPPOSITION to 368 Motion to Quash filed by Defendants MineOne Partners LLC, MineOne Wyoming Data Center LLC, Terra Crypto Inc

Case 1:23-cv-00079-ABJ   Document 384-6   Filed 10/07/24   Page 1 of 6


   EXHIBIT F


       Case 1:23-cv-00079-ABJ              Document 384-6      Filed 10/07/24   Page 2 of 6
                                                                                                Patrick JMurphy
                                                                                159 N. Wolcott Suite 400 (82601)
                                                                                                         Casper
                                                                                                     WY 82602
WILLIAMS, PORTER, DAY &                                                                              pmurphy@
      NEVILLE I\C.                                                                                        wpdn
    Wyoming's Law Firm                       August 22, 2024


  VIA E-MAIL ONLY

            Paula Colbath ([email protected]) Alex Iman ([email protected])
            Marc Gottlieb ([email protected]), William Pao ([email protected])


          Re:            Deposition Scheduling, Conferral

          Dear Paula, Alex, Marc, Will and All Counsel:

       I write in follow-up to my July 15, 2024, July 23, 2024, July 26th, 2024, and August 14,
2024 conferral letters regarding deposition scheduling and notices.

        We just got off our second conferral call with Judge Hambrick. And Judge Hambrick
feels that counsel should further confer about the proposed depositions and proposed deposition
dates before Her Honor needs to get involved to resolve our differences.

        This letter is my effort to follow up on Judge Hambrick’s guidance on the proposed
depositions, deposition dates, and my efforts to complete all depositions by the September 17
discovery cutoff deadline.

         First and foremost: Let’s have our hands-on conferral call tomorrow afternoon at
1:00 pm Mountain to further discuss depositions and the deposition schedule. With Paula
leaving on her vacation, the conferral Judge Hambrick referenced needs to be tomorrow. If 1:00
pm is poor for any of you, I am also willing to confer at 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm tomorrow
afternoon, August 23, with all of you. Please commit to one of these times by reply email/letter
this afternoon. If you do not commit, I'll call you at 1:00 pm and proceed with written conferral to
keep us moving given Paula’s vacation and the Sept 17 discovery cut off date ahead.

        Next, I see what the MineOne and Bit Origin Defendants are doing here. By not
providing BCB with any dates for Defendants’ proposed depositions before our September 17
discovery cutoff date, and not offering to schedule any depositions before our September 17
discovery cutoff date, you are trying to build track for your future argument – to Judge Johnson –
that Judge Johnson should extend the discovery cutoff date into early October. This is not right.


     Case 1:23-cv-00079-ABJ          Document 384-6         Filed 10/07/24    Page 3 of 6


        I have offered the Defendants specific dates in my previous four (4) letter and e-mail
conferrals for the depositions BCB wants to take. Now, as things stand after everyone provided
their availability, I want to take the Zoom depositions of Jiaming Li and Erick Rengifo on
September 5 – a day that all counsel are available. And I want to take the depositions of
Chong Wang and Huaili Zhang on either Wednesday, September 11 or Thursday,
September 12 (see Schedule 1 below). I shared this with Judge Hambrick and all of you today.
But you would not commit to it, other than to say Erick Rengifo can give his deposition on
September 12 and Jiaming Li could possibly give his deposition at some future date (after CFIUS
approves North Range). And Judge Hambrick wasn’t willing to order it at this time, as Her Honor
wanted counsel to further confer about it before re-involving the Court.

       This email and tomorrow is that further conferral.

       Perhaps not surprisingly, given your apparent strategy, Defendants have not even
suggested a day or days when you want to depose BCB’s Michael Murphy, Emory Patterson, Neil
Phippen, and Sean Murphy. You haven’t proposed a day since deposition scheduling conferrals
began, and you did not today on the call today with Judge Hambrick. Why?

        To be very clear—I have offered you days during the week of September 9 – 13 that you
could depose them. To make these days available and stay ahead of the September 17 deadline, I
purposely moved my family vacation. This was not easy or something I wanted to do. But I did it
to free up these days so you can take the depositions before the Discovery cut off on September
17.
         If Paula wants to depose Michael Murphy and Sean Murphy in person in Cheyenne that
week, I volunteered that she could do that – and that I would make them available then. We are
trying to get in touch with Neil Phippen to confirm his availability these days. The more you fail
to schedule a deposition(s) on one of these days, the more it tells me your intent is to continue
your delay tactics to (1) try to move back the discovery deadline, and(2) impose as many financial
costs and burdens on my client as possible. If you wanted to meaningfully depose BCB’s
principals in good faith, why wouldn’t you schedule those depositions September 9-12?

       By re-scheduling my family vacation in Colorado, I’ve given you multiple and
consecutive extra days – before the discovery cutoff date – to depose BCB’s principals. But you
did not accept my invitation on our call with Judge Hambrick.. It sure seems you purposely did
not accept my invitation to create track for your future argument, to Judge Johnson, that ‘gosh, we
haven’t been able to set any depositions before the September 17 discovery cutoff date, so Your
Honor should extend the September 17 discovery cutoff into early October so we can schedule
and complete these depositions.’

         Dating back to early July, I have been offering actual dates for BCB’s depositions of
 Jiaming Li, Erick Rengifo, Huaili Zhang, and Chong Wang (Defendants’ principals, beneficial
 owners, and key men). And after all the back and forth, we’ve come to September 5 and 11/12.
 That is just two days and four depositions for a total of 8-12 hours of deposition time.


     Case 1:23-cv-00079-ABJ          Document 384-6        Filed 10/07/24     Page 4 of 6
         Paula and Mark’s response? You don’t control Huaili Zhang and Chong Wang and
 can’t/won’t produce them. [I know differently. Your clients do control them. And I offered to
 provide Judge Hambrick with that evidence]. And Paula refuses to produce Erick Rengifo on
 September 5 – a day all of us are available. And Paula says Jiaming Li can’t give his deposition
 until he receives his passport back from US Customs, hopefully on/after September 17. But
 Ms. Colbath never says if this is a US passport and/or Chinese passport, and whether one or
 both passports were confiscated. It is likely Jiaming Li still has at least one passport and can
 travel to provide his deposition. Furthermore, Ms. Colbath has yet to identify a single specific
 Chinese law that would preclude Jiaming Li from providing his deposition while in China. She
 has further failed to provide any rationale why the Wyoming District Court should follow or
 concern itself with said unidentified Chinese law.

         The three key Chinese foreign nationals in this case - Chong Wang, Huaili Zhang, and
 Jiaming Li - who directed and/or conducted MineOne’s breach of contract and/or Bit Origin’s
 tortious interference, are likely hiding in China and using their presence in China as an excuse
 to dodge depositions. This is so plain to see. Ms. Colbath knows that any deposition of these
 three key individuals would further reveal the extent to which they were responsible for the
 harm and damages incurred by BCB. It seems, to me, Defendants are using every play in the
 book to avoid producing the key Chinese foreign nationals for their deposition.

         I know you know this – because we’ve talked about it – but I want to be clear. BCB
 opposes any extension of the September 17 discovery cutoff date. And the Defendants cannot
 show good cause to further extend the discovery cutoff date. [Judge Johnson earlier extended
 the discovery cutoff date from August 7 to September 17]. But now the MineOne Bit Origin
 Defendants want another extension – another extension to take an unreasonable amount of
 depositions, depositions they refused to take, and refuse to schedule, before the September 17
 discovery cutoff date. This is not right.

        Defendant Bitmain Georgia supports Plaintiff’s position that there be no further discovery
cutoff date. I’ll tell you why I oppose moving the September 17 discovery cutoff date.

        First, all of you have known about this September 17 discovery cutoff date since April.
Yet the only deposition Defendants have taken in the interim is Tim Desrochers’ jurisdictional
deposition in late April. Defendants haven’t taken any depositions since then. Except for Erick
Rengifo, the Defendants have not offered any dates for proposed depositions (i.e., for any of the
key Chinese nationals involved in this lawsuit).

        Even now, on August 22, the MineOne Defendants and Bit Origin haven’t offered any
date for any deposition. BCB should not now be burdened with the expense and time loss, after
September 17, of having to defend depositions the Defendants should have taken months ago.
That unfairly prejudices BCB and its counsel’s ability to prepare for trial. And it subjects BCB to
an incredible amount of expense, after September 17, it would not have to bear if Defendants’
counsel would complete their needed depositions before the September 17 discovery cutoff.


     Case 1:23-cv-00079-ABJ          Document 384-6        Filed 10/07/24      Page 5 of 6


       And all the while, there are dates available – dates that all counsel all available – for you
to schedule depositions (i.e., Sept 9-12). Simply stated, you should have done your needed
discovery in the time allowed. You chose not to do that. BCB should not have to suffer from
your choices.

  Second, the parties’ dispositive motions and briefs must be filed by October 4. [All of us agreed
to this deadline, and Judge Johnson set it]. I need the deposition transcripts in advance of our
October 4 dispositive motion filing deadline to incorporate the deposition testimony into the
briefing. I need those deposition transcripts at least ten days before our briefs are due.

        The dispositive motion reply briefs are due October 18. All other pretrial motions – and
briefing – are due October 18. Dispositive motion reply briefs are due October 25. All other
briefing is due November 1. These dates and deadlines give Judge Johnson only a very limited
time – November and December, holiday months – to consider and rule on these motions before
our late January trial. It is not fair to Judge Johnson – or to BCB – to ‘push back’ those briefing
dates to where Judge Johnson has less time to consider all these briefs/motions before the January
trial date. I will not agree to pushing back our briefing deadlines – deadlines all of us earlier
agreed upon in April.

       And I will never agree to push back the trial date. Even Marc Gotlieb agrees we should
not push back the trial date.

        Moreover, relying on this September 17 discovery cut-off date we all agreed to back in
April, I rescheduled my family vacation for and have scheduled many other legal activities,
deadlines and commitments in the four weeks after September 17. I have three other case
mediations. I have multiple depositions in other cases. I have expert designations – and discovery
cutoff dates – in September and early October.

        Consider: I’ve told you my availability and you have more than 13 days the next three
weeks you can schedule depositions. But you haven’t given me any dates with individuals you
wish to depose on those available dates.

        I look forward to further conferring with you tomorrow afternoon about dates to complete
all of our “needed” depositions by the September 17 cut-off.


                                                      Best regards,


                                                     Counsel for Plaintiff BCB


Case 1:23-cv-00079-ABJ   Document 384-6   Filed 10/07/24   Page 6 of 6


                         SCHEDULE 1


                   Deposition Zoom Scheduling


 • Jiaming Li, PhD (MineOne, Terra Crypto, Bit Origin) and Erick Rengifo
   (MineOne, Terra Crypto, Bit Origin) September 5, 2024 via Zoom

 • Chong Wang, MBA (MineOne, Bit Origin) and Huaili Zhang (MineOne, Bit
   Origin) September 11 or 12, 2024 via Zoom

 • Ran Chang and Micree Zhan (Bitmain) dates to follow upon BCB deposition
   scheduling.